Orthodox Quotes - Page 9

• Every success in anything we should refer to the Lord and with the Prophet say: 'Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory' (Ps. 113:9).

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Success, God, Christian

  88 Copy quote

• Every genuine confession humbles the soul. When it takes the form of thanksgiving, it teaches the soul that it has been delivered by the grace of God.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Grace, Soul

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• ...when seeking material light, remember the spiritual light which is indispensable for the soul, and without which it remains in the darkness of the passions, in the darkness of spiritual death. 'I am come as a light into the world,' says the Lord, 'that whosoever believeth on Me, should not abide in darkness' (Jn. 12:46).

  John of Kronstadt

  Christian, Spiritual, Passion

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• Many have said much about love, but you will find love itself only if you seek it among the disciples of Christ. For only they have true Love as love's teacher. 'Though I have the gift of prophecy', says St. Paul, 'and know all mysteries and all knowledge? and have no love, it profits me nothing' (I Cor. 13:2-3). He who possesses love possesses God Himself, for 'God is love' (I Jn. 4:8). To Him be glory throughout the ages. Amen.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Teacher, Finding Love

  10 Copy quote

• You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Kindness, Heart, Giving

  "The Ladder of the Beatitudes". Book by Jim Forest, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1999.

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• Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Christianity, Virtue, Mercy

  122 Copy quote

• He has as yet no perfect love, whose disposition towards men depends on what they are like, loving one and despising another for this or that, or sometimes loving, sometimes hating one and the same man. Blessed is the man who can love all men equally.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Hate, Blessed

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• We make assertions and denials of what is next to [the Divine Nature], but never of It, for It is both beyond every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things, and, by virtue of Its preeminently simple and absolute nature, free of every limitation, beyond every limitation; it is also beyond every denial.

  Pope Dionysius

  Christian, Unique, Simple

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• Do not make judgments, and you will travel no quicker road to the forgiveness of your sins. 'Judge not, so that you may not be judged' (Lk. 6:37).

  John Climacus

  Christian, Judging, May

  Saint John (Climacus) (1982). “John Climacus (CWS)”, p.156, Paulist Press

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• What is the right time [to discuss theology]? Whenever we are free from the mire and noise without, and our commanding faculty is not confused by illusory, wandering images, leading us, as it were, to mix fine script with ugly scrawling, or sweet-smelling scent with slime. We need actually 'to be still' (Ps. 46:10) in order to know God, and when we receive the opportunity, 'to judge uprightly' (Ps. 75:2) in theology.

  Gregory of Nazianzus

  Christian, Sweet, Confused

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• Dispassion and humility lead to spiritual knowledge. Without them no one will see the Lord.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Spiritual, Humility

  21 Copy quote

• If... Adam had trusted in God and been nourished from the tree of life (Gn. 2:9)? he would not have set aside the immortality that had been granted. For such immortality is eternally preserved by participation in life, since all life is genuine and preserved by appropriate food. The food of that blessed life is 'the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world' (Jn. 6:33), just as the inerrant Word Himself declares about Himself in the Gospels.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Blessed, Giving

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• How is it... that the Son and Holy Spirit are not co-unoriginate with the Father, if they are co-eternal with Him? Because they are from Him, though not after Him. 'Being unoriginate' necessarily implies 'being eternal,' but 'being eternal' does not entail 'being unoriginate,' so long as the Father is referred to as origin. So because They have a cause They are not unoriginate... a cause is not necessarily prior to its effects... Because time is not involved, They are to that extent unoriginate... for the sources of time are not subject to time.

  Gregory of Nazianzus

  Christian, Father, Son

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• It is not our free will but 'it is the Lord who sets the captive free' (Ps. 145:7). It is not our own virtue but 'it is the Lord who lifts up those who were laid low' (Ps. 145:8). It is not application to reading but 'it is the Lord who gives light to the blind' (Ps. 145:8). It is not our cautiousness but 'it is the Lord who protects the stranger' (Ps. 145:9). It is not our endurance but 'it is the Lord who raises or gives support to the fallen' (Ps. 144:14).

  John Cassian

  Christian, Reading, Light

  John Cassian, Colm Luibhéid (1985). “Conferences”, p.95, Paulist Press

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• Today the eyes of orthodox Jews of earth are fixed upon Palestine.

  Joseph Franklin Rutherford

  Eye, Earth, Today

  Joseph Franklin Rutherford (1990). “Jehovah's Witnesses I: The Early Writings of J.F. Rutherford”, Taylor & Francis

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• ... for our sake loosing within Himself the bonds of bodily birth, He granted us through spiritual birth, according to our own volition, power to become children of God instead of children of flesh and blood if we have faith in His Name (cf. Jn. 1:12-13). For the Savior the sequence was, first of all, incarnation and bodily birth for my sake; and so thereupon the birth in the Spirit through baptism, originally spurned by Adam, for the sake of my salvation and restoration by grace, or, to describe it even more vividly, my very remaking.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Spiritual, Children

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• It is written, 'Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves' (Mt. 10:16). Being like serpents means not ignoring the attacks and wiles of the devil. Like is quickly shown to like. The simplicity of the dove denotes purity of action.

  Syncletica of Alexandria

  Christian, Wise, Mean

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• When your soul is pricked by compunction and gradually changed, it becomes a fountain flowing with rivers of tears and compunction. ... If any one of you ever happens to communicate with tears, whether you weep before the Liturgy or in the course of the divine Liturgy, or at the very time that you receive the divine Gifts, and does not desire to do this for the rest of his days and nights, it will avail him nothing to have wept merely once. It is not this alone that at once purifies us and makes us worthy; it is daily compunction that does not cease until death.

  Symeon the New Theologian

  Christian, Night, Rivers

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• The Lord said: 'Without Me you can do nothing' (Jn. 15:5). So for the duration of our life, every day and at every moment, we must keep unchanged in our heart the feeling, conviction and disposition, that on no occasion can we allow ourselves to think of relying on ourselves and trusting ourselves.

  Lorenzo Scupoli

  Christian, Heart, Thinking

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• O God, do not leave me. I have done nothing good in Your sight, but according to Your goodness, let me now make a beginning of good.

  Arsenius the Great

  Christian, Sight, Done

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• Let no man's place, or dignity, or riches, puff him up; and let no man's low condition or poverty abase him. For the chief points are faith towards God, hope towards Christ, the enjoyment of those good things for which we look, and love towards God and our neighbor.

  Ignatius of Antioch

  Christian, Men, And Love

  60 Copy quote

• I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having been silent.

  Arsenius the Great

  Christian, Silent, Orthodox Christian

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• Keep the Feast of the Resurrection. Be a Peter or a John; hasten to the Sepulchre, running together, running against one another, vying in the noble race (cf. Jn. 20:3-4). And even if you be beaten in speed, win the victory of zeal; not looking into the tomb, but going in.

  Gregory of Nazianzus

  Christian, Running, Winning

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• No benefit comes from a just man's prayer if he who asks for it finds more pleasure in sin than in virtue. For Samuel mourned over Saul when he sinned, but he was not able to obtain God's mercy, for his grief was not supported by the necessary change of life on the part of the sinner. Hence God put an end to the pointless grief of His servant, saying to him, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?' (I Sam. 16:1).

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Prayer, Life Changing

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• [God] arranged that the boy Samuel should be chosen but instead of teaching him directly He had him turn once or twice to an old man. This youngster, to whom He had granted a direct encounter with Himself, had nevertheless to go for instruction to someone who had offended God, and all because that person was an old man. He decided that Samuel was most worthy of a high calling and yet He made him submit to the guidance of an old man so that once summoned to a divine ministry he might learn humility and might himself become for all the young a model of deference.

  John Cassian

  Christian, Teaching, Humility

  "Conferences".

  15 Copy quote

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