Category: DESPONDENCY

  • The more gifted a man is, the less progress he makes on the spiritual level. Talent is an obstacle to the inner life.

    —Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

  • “Beware of passionate attachments to the world. Although they deceive you with peace and comfort, they are so fleeting that you do not notice how you are deprived of them, and in their place come sorrow, longing, despondency, and no comfort whatsoever.”

    —St. Leonid of Optina

  • “The grass is brown on both sides.”

    —Fr. Carlin

  • Never delay in undertaking any work you have to do, for the first brief delay will lead to a second, more prolonged one, and the second to a third, still longer, and so on. Thus work begins too late and is not done in its proper time, or else is abandoned altogether, as something too burdensome. Having once tasted the pleasure of inaction, you begin to like and prefer it to action. In satisfying this desire, you will little by little form a habit of inaction and laziness, in which the passion for doing nothing will possess you to such an extent that you will cease even to see how incongruous and criminal it is; except perhaps when you weary of this laziness, and are again eager to take up your work. Then you will see with shame how negligent you have been and how many necessary works you have neglected, for the sake of the empty and useless ‘doing what you like’.

    Unseen Warfare
    Lorenzo Scupoli

  • “Just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right. I’m ashamed of it. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I’m sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.”

    —Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger

    (via Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation)

  • “When you see that you’re making no progress in your spiritual life, don’t despair. But neither should you be content with whatever progress you may have already made.”

    —Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, Mount Athos

  • “I always advise my friends: just go for a walk for an hour and come back and see how you feel then. I think we’re meant to be outdoors.”

    — Björk

  • Sounds and emotions detach us from ourselves, whereas silence always forces man to reflect upon his own life.

    The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise
    Cardinal Robert Sarah

  • In making such resolutions we mostly have in view the beauty and radiance of virtue, which attract our will, however weak and impotent it may be; and so naturally the difficult side of virtue escapes our attention. Today this side escapes notice, because the beauty of virtue strongly attracts our will; but tomorrow, when the usual works and cares present themselves, this attraction will not be so strong, although the intention is still remembered. When desire weakens, the will also becomes weaker or relapses into its natural impotence, and at the same time the difficult side of virtue stands out and strikes the eye; for the path of virtue is by its nature hard, and is hardest of all at the first step. Now let us suppose that the man, who decided yesterday to enter upon this path, today does so; he no longer feels any support for carrying out his decision. The desire has lost its intensity, the will has weakened, nothing but obstacles are in sight—in himself, in the habitual course of his life, in the usual relationships with others. And so he decides: ‘I shall wait a while and gather my strength.” Thus he goes on waiting from day to day, and it is no wonder if he waits all his life. And yet had he started work yesterday, when the inspiring desire to mend his ways came upon him, had he done one thing or another in obedience to this desire, had be introduced into his life something in this spirit— today his desire and will would not be so weak as to retreat in the face of obstacles. There must be obstacles, but if the man had something to lean on in himself, he would have overcome them, be it with difficulty. Had he been occupied all day with overcoming them, the next day he would have felt them far less; and on the third day still less. Thus going further and further he would have become established on the right path.

    Unseen Warfare
    Lorenzo Scupoli

  • Let me ask you another question. Who is more useful to society, a doctor or a monk?“ Thomas asked pensively. Father Maximos grinned and sighed. “I have been asked this question before. What does monasticism offer to society? Well, this question is characteristic of a modern way of thinking. It is an activist orientation toward the world. Every act, every person, is judged on the basis of their utility and contribution to the whole. Parents urge their children to excel so that they may be useful to society. Based on our spiritual tradition I prefer to see human beings first and foremost in terms of who they are and only after that in terms of their contributions to society. Otherwise we run the risk of turning people into machines that produce useful things. So what if you do not produce useful things? Does that mean that you should be discarded as a useless object? I am afraid that with this orientation contemporary humanity has undermined the inherent value of the human person. Today we value ourselves in terms of how much we contribute rather than in terms of who we are. And that attitude toward ourselves often leads to all sorts of psychological problems. I see this all the time during confessions.” 

    —Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence