Quotes

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

Temptations

Grace always precedes temptation, as if to notify you saying, 'Prepare yourself and lock your doors.'

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Intellect

The intellect becomes a stranger to the things of this world when its attachment to the senses has been completely sundered.

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Pride

Know that if your thought leads you to look at how others live, this is a sign of pride.

St. Silouan of the Holy Mountain

Temptations

If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.

St. Mark the Ascetic

Pride

Arrogance cannot bear to see itself scorned and humility held in honor.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

Pride

Nothing so abets our secret destruction as conceit and self-satisfaction, or so cuts us off from God and provokes our chastisement at the hands of other men as grumbling, or so disposes us to sin as a disorderly life and talkativeness.

St. Peter of Damascus

Temptations

When you pray to God in time of temptation do not say, 'Take this or that away from me', but pray like this: 'O Jesus Christ, sovereign Master, help me and do not let me sin against Thee. . .'

Abba Isaiah the Solitary

Resurrection

Everything has already begun, and everything always begins anew for the Church, with the Resurrection of our Lord.

His Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV

Temptations

Remember that a good action is always either preceded or followed by temptations. God permits this so that the virtue, exercised in that particular action, may be confirmed, consolidated, steeled.

St. Macarius of Optina

Temptations

The Fathers used to say, “If temptation befall thee in the place thou dost inhabit, desert not the place in the time of temptation: for if thou dost, wheresoever thou goest, thou shalt find what thou fliest before thee.”

The Desert Fathers

Pride

Keep a strict watch against any appearance of pride: it appears imperceptibly, particularly in time of vexation and irritability against others for quite unimportant causes.

St. John of Kronstadt

Temptations

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

St. Ambrose of Optina

Pride

Pride is the forerunner of every fall.

St. Macarius of Optina

Pride

In words of boastfulness and self-justification there always lie concealed contrariness and pride, from which God turns away. After sinning one ought immediately to 'flee.' But you say, where? To the calm haven of heartfelt repentance.

St. Joseph of Optina

Pride

Those who mourn and those who are insensitive are not subject to fear, but the cowardly often have become deranged. And this is natural. For the Lord rightly forsakes the proud that the rest of us may learn not to be puffed up.

St. John Climacus

Pride

It is no small struggle to be freed from self-esteem. Such freedom is to be attained by the inner practice of the virtues and by more frequent prayer; and the sign that you have attained it is that you no longer harbor rancor against anybody who abuses or has abused you.

St. Maximus the Confessor

Temptations

When beset by temptations pray for courage and strength to remain firm. Remember: there is an eternity!

St. Macarius of Optina

Pride

The Holy Fathers say, 'Pride goeth before a fall, and humility before grace.' Whereas faintheartedness is the mother of impatience.

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

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Grace always precedes temptation, as if to notify you saying, 'Prepare yourself and lock your doors.'

The intellect becomes a stranger to the things of this world when its attachment to the senses has been completely sundered.

Know that if your thought leads you to look at how others live, this is a sign of pride.

If a man tries to overcome temptations without prayer and patient endurance, he will become more entangled in them instead of driving them away.

Arrogance cannot bear to see itself scorned and humility held in honor.

Nothing so abets our secret destruction as conceit and self-satisfaction, or so cuts us off from God and provokes our chastisement at the hands of other men as grumbling, or so disposes us to sin as a disorderly life and talkativeness.

When you pray to God in time of temptation do not say, 'Take this or that away from me', but pray like this: 'O Jesus Christ, sovereign Master, help me and do not let me sin against Thee. . .'

Everything has already begun, and everything always begins anew for the Church, with the Resurrection of our Lord.

Remember that a good action is always either preceded or followed by temptations. God permits this so that the virtue, exercised in that particular action, may be confirmed, consolidated, steeled.

The Fathers used to say, “If temptation befall thee in the place thou dost inhabit, desert not the place in the time of temptation: for if thou dost, wheresoever thou goest, thou shalt find what thou fliest before thee.”

Keep a strict watch against any appearance of pride: it appears imperceptibly, particularly in time of vexation and irritability against others for quite unimportant causes.

When you pray fervently, watch, for there will be temptations. This happens to everyone.

Pride is the forerunner of every fall.

In words of boastfulness and self-justification there always lie concealed contrariness and pride, from which God turns away. After sinning one ought immediately to 'flee.' But you say, where? To the calm haven of heartfelt repentance.

Those who mourn and those who are insensitive are not subject to fear, but the cowardly often have become deranged. And this is natural. For the Lord rightly forsakes the proud that the rest of us may learn not to be puffed up.

It is no small struggle to be freed from self-esteem. Such freedom is to be attained by the inner practice of the virtues and by more frequent prayer; and the sign that you have attained it is that you no longer harbor rancor against anybody who abuses or has abused you.

When beset by temptations pray for courage and strength to remain firm. Remember: there is an eternity!

The Holy Fathers say, 'Pride goeth before a fall, and humility before grace.' Whereas faintheartedness is the mother of impatience.

"The view we take of our Savior's dispensation is the view of the holy fathers who preceded us. By reading their works we equip our own mind to follow them and to introduce no innovation into Orthodoxy."

St. Cyril of Alexandria

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