They had thought to triumph by proving that in fact to give to others is to put one's money out at a usurious interest.

"Give to the poor," said St.Peter Chrysologus,[5] "that you may give to yourself; give him a crumb in order to receive a loaf; give him a shelter to receive heaven." There was nothing like this in Francis; his charity is not selfishness, it is love.

He went, not to the whole, who need no physician, but to the sick, the forgotten, the disdained.

He dispensed the treasures of his heart according to the need and reserved the best of himself for the poorest and the most lost, for lepers and thieves.
The gaps in his education were of marvellous service to him.

More learned, the formal logic of the schools would have robbed him of that flower of simplicity which is the great charm of his life; he would have seen the whole extent of the sore of the Church, and would no doubt have despaired of healing it.