Maximus the Confessor Quotes

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Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is. Money is not evil, but avarice is. Glory is not evil, but vainglory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

103 Copy quote
But I say to you, the Lord says, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you. Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Hate, Love You

84 Copy quote
Christianity is an entirely new way of being human.

Maximus the Confessor

Way, Christianity, Being Human

90 Copy quote
In all of our deeds God looks at the intention, whether we do it for His sake, or for the sake of some other intention.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

54 Copy quote
Theology without practice is the theology of demons

Maximus the Confessor

Practice, Demon, Theology

74 Copy quote
To harbor no envy, no anger, no resentment against an offender is still not to have charity for him. It is possible, without any charity, to avoid rendering evil for evil. But to render, spontaneously, good for evil - such belongs to a perfect spiritual love.

Maximus the Confessor

Spiritual, Religious, Kindness

102 Copy quote
Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Spiritual, Fire

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Do not say that faith in Christ alone can save you, for this is not possible if you do not attain love for Him, which is demonstrated by deeds. As for mere faith: "The demons also believe and tremble" (James, 2:19). The action of love consists in heartfelt good deeds toward one's neighbor, magnanimity, patience, and sober use of things.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

55 Copy quote
Cleanse your mind from anger, remembrance of evil, and shameful thoughts, and then you will find out how Christ dwells in you.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

57 Copy quote
Only wonder can comprehend His incomprehensible power.

Maximus the Confessor

Faith, Inspiration, Christian Inspirational

78 Copy quote
If God suffers in the flesh when He is made man, should we not rejoice when we suffer, for we have God to share our sufferings? This shared suffering confers the kingdom on us. For he spoke truly who said, 'If we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him' (Rom. 8:17).

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Men, Suffering

55 Copy quote
He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Brother, Judging

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When our intellect has shaken off its many opinions about created things, then the inner principle of truth appears clearly to it, providing it with a foundation of real knowledge and removing its former preconceptions as though removing scales from eyes, as happened in the case of St. Paul (cf. Acts 9:18). For an understanding of Scripture that does not go beyond the literal meaning, and a view of the sensible world that relies exclusively on sense perception, are indeed scales, blinding the soul's visionary faculty and preventing access to the pure Logos of truth.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Real, Eye

21 Copy quote
He who has realized love for God in his heart is tireless in his pursuit of the Lord his God, and bears every hardship, reproach and insult nobly, never thinking the least evil of anyone.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Heart, Thinking

30 Copy quote
In conformity with the philosophy of Christ, let us make of our life a training for death.

Maximus the Confessor

Philosophy, Training, Conformity

52 Copy quote
The person who truly wishes to be healed is he who does not refuse treatment. This treatment consists of the pain and distress brought on by various misfortunes. He who refuses them does not realize what they accomplish in this world or what he will gain from them when he departs this life.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Pain, Wish

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Those who seek the Lord should not look for Him outside themselves; on the contrary, they must seek Him within themselves through faith made manifest in action. For He is near you: 'The word is... in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith' (Rom. 10:8) - Christ being Himself the word that is sought.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Heart, Looks

59 Copy quote
By His gracious condescension God became man and is called man for the sake of man and by exchanging His condition for ours revealed the power that elevates man to God through his love for God and brings God down to man because of His love for man. By this blessed inversion, man is made God by divinization and God is made man by hominization. For the Word of God and God wills always and in all things to accomplish the mystery of His embodiment.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Blessed, Men

45 Copy quote
Whoever sees in himself the traces of hatred toward any man on account of any kind of sin is completely foreign to the love of God. For love toward God does not at all tolerate hatred for man.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

29 Copy quote
Love is manifested not only through the distribution of one's possessions, but even moreso through the spreading of the word of God and helpful deeds.

Maximus the Confessor

Inspirational, Christian, Religious

6 Copy quote
The person who loves God cannot help loving every man as himself, even though he is grieved by the passions of those who are not yet purified. But when they amend their lives, his delight is indescribable and knows no bounds.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Passion, Men

60 Copy quote
Whatever a man loves he inevitably clings to, and in order not to lose it he rejects everything that keeps him from it. So he who loves God cultivates pure prayer, driving out every passion that keeps him from it. He who drives out self-love, the mother of the passions, will with God's help easily rid himself of the rest, such as anger, irritation, rancor and so on. But he who is dominated by self-love is overpowered by the other passions, even against his will. Self-love is the passion of attachment to the body.

Maximus the Confessor

Mother, Prayer, Passion

12 Copy quote
A pure heart is perhaps one which has no natural propulsion towards anything in any manner whatsoever. When in its extreme simplicity such a heart has become like a writing-tablet beautifully smoothed and polished, God comes to dwell in it and writes there His own laws.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Heart, Writing

51 Copy quote
The man who has struggled bravely with the passions of the body, has fought ably against unclean spirits, and has expelled from his soul the conceptual images they provoke, should pray for a pure heart to be given him and for a spirit of integrity to be renewed within him (cf. Ps. 51:10). In other words, he should pray that by grace he may be completely emptied of evil thoughts and filled with divine thoughts, so that he may become a spiritual world of God, splendid and vast, wrought from moral, natural and theological forms of contemplation.

Maximus the Confessor

Christian, Spiritual, Integrity

20 Copy quote
In all our actions, God considers the intention: whether we act for Him or for some other motive.

Maximus the Confessor

Motivation, Our Actions, Intention

34 Copy quote

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Born: 580
Died: August 13, 662
Cite this Page: Citation

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