SO GOOD QUOTES

Author: SO GOOD QUOTES

  • “You will lose nothing of what you have renounced for the Lord’s sake. For in its own time it will return to you greatly multiplied.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • “If poor judgment is harmful to everyone, it is particularly so to those who live with great strictness.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • The almsgiver is a harbor for those in necessity: a harbor receives all who have encountered shipwreck, and frees them from danger; whether they are bad or good or whatever they are who are in danger, it escorts them into its own shelter. So you likewise, when you see on earth the man who has encountered the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an account of his life, but free him from his misfortune. God has excused you from all officiousness and meddlesomeness… . A judge is one thing, an almsgiver is another.

    —St. John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty

  • Let not we who are reasonable show ourselves to be more savage than the unreasoning animals. For even the animals use in common the plants that grow naturally from the earth. Flocks of sheep graze together upon the same hillside, herds of horses feed upon the same plain, and all living creatures permit each other to satisfy their need for food. But we hoard what is common, and keep for ourselves what belongs to many others.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “Are you poor? You know someone who is even poorer. You have provisions for only ten days, but someone else has only enough for one day.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “Truly, this is the worst kind of avarice: not even to share perishable goods with those in need.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • Wells become more productive if they are drained completely, while they silt up if they are left standing. Thus wealth left idle is of no use to anyone, but put to use and exchanged it becomes fruitful and beneficial for the public.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “You, however, have regard for gold, but not for your own brothers and sisters. You recognize the inscription on the face of a coin, and can tell the counterfeit from the genuine, but you completely ignore your brothers and sisters in their time of need.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “It is equally difficult to preserve one’s soul from despair in hard times, and to prevent it from becoming arrogant in prosperous circumstances.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “But how will I support myself?” such a person asks. You have hands, you have skills—hire yourself out as a laborer or a servant.  Life has many possibilities and opportunities.  Are you unable to work? Then beg from those who have means. Do you think it shameful to beg? You will be put to even greater shame if you default on a loan. In any case, I do not make these recommendations as if laying down a law, but rather to emphasize that anything is preferable to borrowing. The ant is able, without begging or borrowing, to feed itself, while the bee gives what remains of its own food to the queen, which nature has given neither hands nor any skills. And you, a human being, the inventive animal, can you not find even one contrivance out of so many that are available for the preservation of life?

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice