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“Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honor your patience.” —St. John Climacus
“The life of the righteous was radiant. How did it become radiant if it wasn’t by patience? Love patience, O monk, as the mother of courage.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian
“Faintness of heart is a sign of despondency, and negligence is the mother of both. A cowardly man shows that he suffers from two diseases: love of his flesh and lack of faith; for love of one’s flesh is a sign of unbelief. But he who despises the love of the flesh proves that he believes in God with his whole heart and awaits the age to come … A courageous heart and scorn of perils comes from one of two causes: either from hardness of heart or from great faith in God. Pride accompanies hardness of heart, but humility accompanies faith. A man cannot acquire hope in God unless he first does His will with exactness. For hope in God and manliness of heart are born of the testimony of the conscience, and by the truthful testimony of the mind we possess confidence towards God.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40
“Everyday I lay a foundation for building my repentance, and again with my own hands I demolish it.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian
“…should we fall, we should not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord's love. For if He so chooses, He can deal mercifully with our weakness. Only we should not cut ourselves off from Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal…let us always be ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.” —St. Peter of Damascus
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Favorite Quotations:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.” —Bill Watterson
“He who strikes terror in others is himself continually in fear.” —Claudius Claudianus
“Who feareth to suffer suffereth already, because he feareth.” —Michel de Montaigne
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.” —Thomas Jefferson
“If names are not correct, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things.” —K'ung Fu-Tzu (Confucius)
“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.” —Albert Einstein
“They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” —K'ung Fu-Tzu (Confucius)
“If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: ‘He obviously doesn't know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.’” —Epictetus
“As I have said so many times, God doesn't play dice with the world.” —Albert Einstein
“It is strictly and philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident; it being evident that these words do not signify anything really existing, anything that is truly an agent or the cause of any event; but they signify merely men's ignorance of the real and immediate cause.” —Samuel Clark
“Even if the whole universe holds communion with the [heretical] patriarch, I will not communicate with him. For I know from the writings of the holy Apostle Paul: the Holy Spirit declares that even the angels would be anathema if they should begin to preach another Gospel, introducing some new teaching.” —St. Maximus the Confessor, The Life of St. Maximus the Confessor
“Those who do not belong to the Truth do not belong to the Church of Christ either; and all the more so, if they speak falsely of themselves by calling themselves, or calling each other, holy pastors and hierarchs; [for it has been instilled in us that] Christianity is characterized not by persons, but by the truth and exactitude of Faith.” —St. Gregory Palamas
“Chrysostomos loudly declares not only heretics, but also those who have communion with them, to be enemies of God.” —St. Theodore the Studite, Epistle of Abbot Theophilus
“I beseech you to do and to carry out good to all men with care and assiduity, becoming all things to all men, as the need of each is shown to you; I want and pray you to be wholly harsh and implacable with the heretics only in regard to cooperating with them or in any way whatever supporting their deranged belief. For I reckon it hatred towards man and a departure from Divine love to lend support to error, so that those previously seized by it might be even more greatly corrupted.” —St. Maximus the Confessor, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 91
“Genuine love is displayed, not by the common table, nor by lofty addresses or flattering words, but by the correcting and the seeking of the benefit of one's neighbour and the lifting up of the one who has fallen.” —St. John Chrysostom
“Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years, and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies.” —St. John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
“The Christian who does not feel that the Virgin Mary is his or her mother is an orphan.” —Pope Francis
“Creating man according to his image, God diffused into man's very being the longing for the divine infinitude of life, of knowledge, and of perfection. It is precisely for this reason that the immeasurable longing and thirst of humanity is not able to be completely satisfied by anything or anyone except God. Declaring divine perfection as the main purpose for humanity's existence in the world – ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father who is in heaven is perfect.’ (Matth. 5: 48) – Christ, the Savior, answered the most elemental demand and need of our God-like and God-longing humanity.” —St. Justin Popovich, Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ, Highest Value and Last Criterion in Orthodoxy
“Concerning the charge of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbols. Therefore, when an Orthodox venerates an icon, he is not guilty of idolatry. He is not worshiping the symbol, but merely venerating it. Such veneration is not directed toward wood, or paint or stone, but towards the person depicted. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objects, but worship is due to God alone.” —St. John of Damascus
“If we could look into each others hearts, and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care.” —Marvin J. Ashton
“Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see; that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.” —Alexander Pope
“The human heart can see what is hidden to the eyes, and the heart knows things that the mind does not begin to understand.” —They Might Be Giants (1971)
“God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there. There is no such thing.” —C. S. Lewis
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or more correctly, being loved in spite of yourself.”—Victor Hugo
“It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose him as an alternative to hell.” —C. S. Lewis
“Christians, above all men, are forbidden to correct the stumblings of sinners by force… it is necessary to make a man better not by force but by persuasion. God gives the crown to those who are kept from evil, not by force, but by choice.” —St. John Chrysostom
“I have seen pride lead to humility. And I remembered him who said: Who hath known the mind of the Lord? The pit and offspring of conceit is a fall; but a fall is often an occasion of humility for those who are willing to use it to their advantage.” —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, Section 38
“Modern society calls the beggar bum and panhandler and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods.” —Peter Maurin
“Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.” —St. John Chrysostom
“Who is the greedy man? One for whom plenty does not suffice. Who defrauds others? One who keeps for himself what belongs to everyone. Aren’t you greedy, don’t you defraud, when you keep for yourself what was given to give away? When someone steals a man’s clothes, we call him a thief. Shouldn’t we give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?” —St. Basil the Great
“The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward. The perfect person does good through love. His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does. He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward. The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God.” —St. Clement of Alexandria
“Every day at nightfall, before sleep comes upon you, excite the judgment of your conscience, demand an account from it, and whatever evil counsels you may have taken during the day … pierce them, tear them to pieces, and do penance for them.” —St. John Chrysostom
“Do not leave unobliterated any fault, however small, for it may lead you on to greater sins.” —St. Mark the Ascetic
“Everyday I lay a foundation for building my repentance, and again with my own hands I demolish it.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian
“Having fulfilled a commandment, expect temptations; because love toward Christ is tested by difficulties.” —St. Mark the Ascetic
“Do not be surprised that when you draw near to virtue, grievous and intense tribulations come to you on all sides: for virtue is not considered virtue, if it does not involve hard work.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Directions on Spiritual Training, The Philokalia
“Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honor your patience.” —St. John Climacus
“The life of the righteous was radiant. How did it become radiant if it wasn’t by patience? Love patience, O monk, as the mother of courage.” —St. Ephrem the Syrian
“…should we fall, we should not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord's love. For if He so chooses, He can deal mercifully with our weakness. Only we should not cut ourselves off from Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal…let us always be ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.” —St. Peter of Damascus
“Faintness of heart is a sign of despondency, and negligence is the mother of both. A cowardly man shows that he suffers from two diseases: love of his flesh and lack of faith; for love of one’s flesh is a sign of unbelief. But he who despises the love of the flesh proves that he believes in God with his whole heart and awaits the age to come … A courageous heart and scorn of perils comes from one of two causes: either from hardness of heart or from great faith in God. Pride accompanies hardness of heart, but humility accompanies faith. A man cannot acquire hope in God unless he first does His will with exactness. For hope in God and manliness of heart are born of the testimony of the conscience, and by the truthful testimony of the mind we possess confidence towards God.” —St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 40
“So in every test, let us say: "Thank you, my God, because this was needed for my salvation."” —Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
