"The poor are at the center of the Gospel."

"The true power is service. The Pope must be a servant of servants."

"I am not a spiritual director, I am a Pope."

"Sometimes I have to take a tranquilizer to sleep. I keep calm. If I have a problem, I write it down on a piece of paper and give it to St. Joseph. Now he sleeps on it! And I sleep too. It’s a good way…"

"A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person…"