Quotes

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

Self-Criticism

If a man accuses himself, he is protected on all sides.

Abba Poemen

Self-Criticism

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

St. John Climacus

Self-Criticism

He who believes in Christ is not judged, for he judges himself, and sets his feet aright to follow the light that goes before him. As a man in deep darkness adapts his step to the candle in his hand, so also he who believes in Christ; that is, he who is set to follow after Christ as the light in the darkness of life.

St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Knowledge

If someone is judged worthy to receive the gift of knowledge but allows his heart to be full of bitterness or rancor or aversion to another, it is as if he had been struck in the eye by a thornbush. That is why knowledge is no good without charity.

St. Maximus the Confessor

Mourning

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Self-Criticism

The first duty of a Christian, of a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ, is to deny oneself. To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits, to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad desires and thoughts; to quench and suppress bad thoughts; to avoid occasions of sin; not to do or desire anything from self-love but to do everything out of love for God. To deny oneself means, according to the Apostle Paul, to be dead to sin and the world, but alive to God.

St. Innocent of Alaska

Self-Criticism

Who has conquered the body? He who has made the heart contrite. Who then has made the heart contrite? He who has denied himself.

The Desert Fathers

Mourning

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.

St. Symeon, Archbishop of Thessalonica

Mourning

Mourning according to God is sadness of soul and the disposition of a sorrowing heart, which ever madly seeks that for which it thirsts; and when it fails in its quest, it painfully pursues it, and follows in its wake grievously lamenting. Or thus: mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and of all ties, fixed in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and of all ties, fixed by holy sorrow to watch over the heart.

St. John Climacus

Mourning

God-fearing sorrow mourns either its own sins, or those of others.

St. Leo the Great

Self-Criticism

If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection.

St. John Climacus

Mourning

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

Mourning

A characteristic of those who are still progressing in blessed mourning is temperance and silence of the lips; and of those who have made progress – freedom from anger and patient endurance of injuries; and of the perfect – humility, thirst for dishonors, voluntary craving for involuntary afflictions, non- condemnation of sinners, compassion even beyond one’s strength. The first are acceptable, the second laudable; but blessed are those who hunger for hardship and thirst for dishonor, for they shall be filled with the food whereof there can be no satiety.

St. John Climacus

Self-Criticism

One who is capable of seeing himself is better than one who has been made worthy to see angels.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Mourning

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

Abbot Nazarius

Self-Criticism

He who smells the smell of one's own foul odor doesn't smell the foul odor of anyone else.

St. Barsanuphius the Great, St. John the Prophet

Mourning

The man who is conscious of his sins is greater than he who profits the whole world by the sight of his countenance. The man who sighs over his soul for but one hour is greater than he who raises the dead by his prayer while dwelling amid many men.

St. Isaac the Syrian

Self-Criticism

The martyrs will show their torments, the ascetics their good works; but what will I have to show but my apathy and my incessant indulgence?

St. Ephraim the Syrian

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If a man accuses himself, he is protected on all sides.

A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual reckoning of ourselves as debtors.

If someone is judged worthy to receive the gift of knowledge but allows his heart to be full of bitterness or rancor or aversion to another, it is as if he had been struck in the eye by a thornbush. That is why knowledge is no good without charity.

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

Who has conquered the body? He who has made the heart contrite. Who then has made the heart contrite? He who has denied himself.

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn, whatever good he may have done in it.

God-fearing sorrow mourns either its own sins, or those of others.

If you do not learn to deny yourself, you can make no progress in perfection.

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.

One who is capable of seeing himself is better than one who has been made worthy to see angels.

The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.

He who smells the smell of one's own foul odor doesn't smell the foul odor of anyone else.

St. Barsanuphius the Great, St. John the Prophet

The man who is conscious of his sins is greater than he who profits the whole world by the sight of his countenance. The man who sighs over his soul for but one hour is greater than he who raises the dead by his prayer while dwelling amid many men.

The martyrs will show their torments, the ascetics their good works; but what will I have to show but my apathy and my incessant indulgence?

"In detachment, the spirit finds quiet and repose for coveting nothing. Nothing wearies it by elation, and nothing oppresses it by dejection, because it stands in the center of its own humility."

St. John Climacus

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