Quotes

A collection of scriptural meditations from Saints and Fathers of the Church.

Anger

My children, desire to purify your hearts from envy and from anger with each other, lest death should overcome you, and you will be counted among the murderers. For whosoever hates his brother, kills a soul.

St. Anthony the Great

Anger

How then shall we escape the disasters that anger brings? By training the force of our feelings not to rush ahead of the power of reason.

St. Basil the Great

Anger

If, wishing to correct another, you are moved to anger, you gratify your own passion. Do not lose yourself in order to save another.

Abbot Macarius

Conscience

As a general rule, decide whether a thing is permissible by the effect it produces within. Permit yourself what is constructive, but never what is destructive.

St. Theophan the Recluse

Anger

Paissy the Great, having lost his temper, begged the Lord to deliver him from irritability. The Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Paissy, if thou dost not wish to get angry, desire nothing, neither criticize nor hate any man, and thou wilt have no anger.’

St. Silouan of the Holy Mountain

Anger

Wrath is a reminder of hidden hatred, that is to say, remembrance of wrongs. Wrath is a desire for the injury of the one who has provoked you. Irascibility is the untimely blazing up of the heart. Bitterness is a movement of displeasure seated in the soul. Anger is an easily changeable movement of one’s disposition and disfiguration of soul.

St. John Climacus

Conscience

When God, using our conscience, calls us to righteousness and yet our self-will opposes Him, He respects our freedom and lets our own will be done; but then, alas, our minds grow dull, our will slack, and we commit iniquities without number. On the other hand, the fruits of the spirit are soon granted to them who follow the commandments of Christ our Lord.

St. Macarius of Optina

Anger

Do not befoul your intellect by clinging to thoughts filled with anger and sensual desire. Otherwise you will lose your capacity for pure prayer and fall victim to the demon of listlessness.

St. Maximus the Confessor

Dejection

Just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul.

St. John Cassian

Anger

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Anger

The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart is stirred; the next, to keep thoughts silent when the soul is upset; the last, to be totally calm when unclean winds are blowing.

St. John Climacus

Conscience

Conscience in men is nothing else but the voice of the omnipresent God moving in the hearts of men, as He Who alone Is and has created everything, the Lord knows all as Himself - all the thoughts, desires, intentions, words, and works of men, present, past, and future. However far in front I may let my thoughts, my imagination, run He is there before me and I ever inevitably finish my course in Him, ever having Him as the witness of my ways. 'His eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men' (Jer 32:19). 'Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?' (Ps 139:7).

St. John of Kronstadt

Anger

Do not let the sun go down on the anger of your brother (Eph. 4:26); that is, let no one be angry and enraged against his brother until the setting of the sun.

Elder Ephraim of Mt. Athos

Conscience

Do not disregard your conscience, which always counsels you of the best. It puts before you divine and angelic advice; it frees you from the hidden stains of your heart, and will make you the gift of free speech with God at the time of your departure.

St. Maximus the Confessor

Anger

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

St. John Climacus

Anger

Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger.

St. Nilus of Sinai

Anger

Through anger the brightness of the Holy Spirit is shut out from the soul.

St. Gregory the Great

Anger

One must by every means strive to preserve peace of soul and not be disturbed by offenses from others; for this one must in every way strive to restrain anger and by means of attentiveness to keep the mind and heart from improper feelings. And therefore we must bear offenses from others with equanimity and accustom ourselves to such a disposition of spirit that these offenses seem to concern not us, but others. Such a practice can give quietness to the human heart and make it as dwelling for God Himself.

St. Seraphim of Sarov

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My children, desire to purify your hearts from envy and from anger with each other, lest death should overcome you, and you will be counted among the murderers. For whosoever hates his brother, kills a soul.

How then shall we escape the disasters that anger brings? By training the force of our feelings not to rush ahead of the power of reason.

If, wishing to correct another, you are moved to anger, you gratify your own passion. Do not lose yourself in order to save another.

As a general rule, decide whether a thing is permissible by the effect it produces within. Permit yourself what is constructive, but never what is destructive.

Paissy the Great, having lost his temper, begged the Lord to deliver him from irritability. The Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Paissy, if thou dost not wish to get angry, desire nothing, neither criticize nor hate any man, and thou wilt have no anger.’

Do not befoul your intellect by clinging to thoughts filled with anger and sensual desire. Otherwise you will lose your capacity for pure prayer and fall victim to the demon of listlessness.

Just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul.

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

The first step toward freedom from anger is to keep the lips silent when the heart is stirred; the next, to keep thoughts silent when the soul is upset; the last, to be totally calm when unclean winds are blowing.

Do not let the sun go down on the anger of your brother (Eph. 4:26); that is, let no one be angry and enraged against his brother until the setting of the sun.

Do not disregard your conscience, which always counsels you of the best. It puts before you divine and angelic advice; it frees you from the hidden stains of your heart, and will make you the gift of free speech with God at the time of your departure.

He who has put a stop to anger has also destroyed remembrance of wrongs; because childbirth continues only while the father is alive.

Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger.

Through anger the brightness of the Holy Spirit is shut out from the soul.

"We are either fools to the world because of Christ or fools to Christ because of the world."

St. Nikolai Velimirovic, Prologue from Ochrid

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