Category: BEST OF

  • Many people do not feel the value of something until after they have lost it!
    …
    The son who neglects to honour his parents mistreats them and only feels their value after he has lost them, whether it is through their death or by losing their approval or blessing…

    In general, a person is not aware of the value of life and the importance of eternity until after he has lost that life and eternity both together…

    How nice it is if a person wakes up to himself and perceives the value of his situation before he loses it, especially something which cannot be retrieved once it has been lost!!

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life

  • Fear makes a person always complain, and makes the person have doubts about the love of God and His care. For this reason we often find that fear is responsible for the person remaining inactive and not contributing positively in life.

    Fear paralyzes the person, making him incapable of advancing forward. Fear makes the person think that they will not be able to fulfill their dreams and wishes, and it makes the person remain silent, and not say the truth.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Overcome Fear, The Effect of Fear on the Human Being

  • The person has to do their part fully, to triumph over fear. If a person has a fear of an exam, for example, they have to study well, and this will help them overcome the fear. We have to fulfill what we are required to do, and God will give us peace which surpasses all understanding and will take away from us anxiety, trouble and fear.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Overcome Fear, How Do We Face Fear?

  • Fear sneaks into the heart of the person who is idle; the devil begins sowing the seeds of doubt and fear. But the person who is occupied, especially with serving God, fear will not sneak into his heart, but he will receive power unto power.

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Overcome Fear, How Do We Face Fear?

  • 41. Men of dull wits should not despair of themselves and become lazy, disdaining the life of virtue and of love for God as being unattainable and incomprehensible to them. They should, instead, exercise such powers as they possess and cultivate themselves. For even if they cannot attain the highest level in respect of virtue and salvation, they may, through practice and aspiration, become either better or at least not worse, which is no small profit for the soul.

    —St Anthony the Great
    On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life
    One Hundred and Seventy Texts

  • You can both desire something and know it’s not good for you, or mistake clarity for truth when ambiguity might be more accurate.

    The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism
    Kyle Chayka

  • “If you have God, then you have everything, even though you are deprived of everything.

    And if you do not have God, then you are deprived of everything, even though you possess everything.

    —Saint Antony the Great

  • However, Clement does not demand that the Christian should abstain from all refinements of culture nor does he wish him to take the vow of poverty. The decisive point is the attitude of the soul. As long as the Christian keeps his heart independent and free from attachment to the goods of this world, there is no reason why he should withdraw from his fellows. It is more important that the cultural life of the city should be imbued with the Christian spirit.

    Coptic Church Review
    V1 number 1
    Spring 1980

  • Why haven’t you bought one?

    I’ve become too practical. My philosophy on money is to make enough of it to not worry about it and to not buy things I don’t need. We don’t buy things to collect, we make them. Of course, I’m still tempted by old cars from time to time — I want to buy a Citroën SM and make it electric.

    Leaping into the future of cars with design visionary Rem D Koolhaas

  • I gravitate towards an extremely narrow band. That’s all that I want and I don’t want anything else.

    —Jeremy Strong