“Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.” St. John the Apostle and Evangelist (1^st century)

“The world suffers nothing from Christians but hates them because they reject its pleasures.” St. Justin Martyr (2^nd century)

“For [man] toils and labors as long as he lives here. Nothing else can relieve those who labor and toil more than the consolation derived from patience. This is not only proper and necessary for everyone in this world, but even more for us who, through the onslaughts of the devil, are more harassed; who, standing daily in the front of the battle, are wearied by our combats with an old and well-trained enemy; who, in addition to the various and constant attacks of temptations and in the struggle of persecution, must relinquish our patrimonies, who must endure prison, bear chains, give up our lives, who must undergo the sword, beasts, fire, the cross, in short, all kinds of tortures and punishments, relying on our faith and the virtue of patience, for the Lord Himself teaches and says: ‘These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace; in the world, however, you will have affliction; but take courage: I have overcome the world’.” St. Cyprian of Carthage (3^rd century)

“You cannot please both God and the world at the same time. They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.” St. John Vianney (18^th–19^th centuries)

“The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” St. Therese of Lisieux (19^th century, Doctor of the Church)

“They who want to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it.” Bl. Titus Brandsma (19^th-20^th centuries)

“Always be faithful to God in observing the promises you made Him, and pay no attention to the mocking of the foolish. Know that the saints were always mocked by the world and the worldly, but even so they placed the world and its maxims under their feet. St. Pio (19^th-20^th centuries)

“Be men and women of the world, but don’t be worldly men and women.” St. Josemaria Escriva (19^th-20^th centuries)

“Our Lord came to renovate the world, and He did it. But He did not begin with the world; He first altered hearts. He left Herod in his court, Pilate on his judgment seat, Caiaphas with his council, Roman coins in the pockets, Caesar’s emblems flying in the streets, Roman eagles screaming on banners of invading armies, and He took twelve men apart from the world, purged their hearts, then sent into them His Spirit, and after they were changed they revolutionized the world.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19^th-20^th centuries)

“The world is a battlefield of angels.” Ven. Fulton Sheen

“But the Church firmly believes that human life, even if weak and suffering, is always a splendid gift of God’s goodness. Against the pessimism and selfishness which cast a shadow over the world, the Church stands for life: in each human life she sees the splendor of that ‘yes,’ that ‘amen,’ Who is Christ Himself. To the ‘no’ which assails and afflicts the world, she replies with this living ‘yes,’ thus defending the human person and the world from all who plot against and harm life.” Pope St. John Paul II (20th-21st centuries)