SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: JUDGMENT

  • We never know what someone is working through and where they are on their spiritual journey. We make judgments based on what we see, but they are only skin-deep judgments. If only we knew people’s hearts, their struggles, we would pray instead of entertaining the judgmental “whys” that come to us…

    —Presvytera Constantina Palmer in ‘The Sweetness of Grace’

  • It is a kind of self-projection of our own when we insist on other people becoming good. In reality, we wish to become good, but because we are unable to, we demand it of others and insist on this. And whereas all things are corrected through prayer, we often are distressed or become outraged and pass judgment on others.

    —Elder St Porphyrios, ‘Wounded by Love’

  • When Silvanus was sitting one day among the brethern, he was taken up into a rapture, and fell on his face. After a while he got up and wept. The brothers asked him, ‘What is the matter, abba?’ But he was silent, weeping. When they pressed him for an answer, he said to them, ‘I was taken before the judgement seat, and I saw many of our kind going down to torment,and many from the world going into the kingdom.’ Silvanus grieved and after that he would not leave his cell: and if he was forced to go out, he covered his face with his shawl and said, ‘Why should I see the light of this world, where nothing is any use to me?’

    The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
    Benedicta Ward

  • But there are other things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind. The more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind.

    Notes from the Underground
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • Three things will surprise you when you die and enter the Kingdom of Heaven:

    1. The people you didn’t think would make it to Heaven are there.

    2. The people you thought would be in Heaven aren’t there.

    3. You are in Heaven.

    —St. John Chrysostom

  • Never react to what people say.  React to what they mean.

    —George J. Thompson and Jerry B. Jenkins, Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

  • Do not offend others, even in your thoughts.

    —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

    Do not let the Devil sow enmity and malice in your heart against your neighbour; do not let these feelings nestle in any way in your heart; otherwise your malice, even if not expressed in words, but shown only in your glance, may infect through sight the soul of your brother.

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

    Train yourself to honour and love others, whether in their presence or in their absence.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, A Whisper of Love: Poems, Prayers and Sayings

    We should have the same attitude toward all of our fellow men. We must not classify people, saying, “This one I like, but so and so I do not.” By doing so, you will have declared war on the other person and that person will not tolerate you. Even though you may not have given any outward sign of dislike by word or gesture, you have done so by your thoughts and that is enough.

    —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives

    Just as soon as he shows us some fault in our neighbor, we must quickly reject the thought—lest it take root in us and grow. Take warning: we must cast it out so no trace is left in us, and replace it with thoughts of the good qualities we know our neighbor possesses (or of those qualities people generally should possess).

    —Fr. Jack Sparks, Unseen Warfare p.63

    Find excuses for others and try your best to defend them in a rightful way, not through hypocrisy.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. 1

    Remember people’s love for you and their good past with you, whenever you are fought by doubts of their sincerity and whenever you see them erring against you, for then their past love will intercede for them and your anger will subside.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • It is those who are subject to the demon of arrogance who especially suffer in this way; because, as their hearts are no longer continually occupied with impure thoughts, they are prone to the passion of pride. And in order to be convinced of the truth of what has been said, when they have achieved a certain measure of holy quiet, let them discreetly examine themselves. Then they will certainly find that some thought is concealed in the depth of their heart like a snake in dung, suggesting to them that they have made some progress in purity of heart by their own effort and zeal. Poor wretches! They do not think of what was said: ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive as a free gift, either from God, or by the co-operation and prayers of others?’ And so let them look to their own affairs, and let them cast out of their heart with all speed the snake mentioned above, killing it by much humility, so that when they have got rid of it they may in time be stripped of their clothing of skin and as chaste children sing to the Lord the triumph song of purity; if only, when they are stripped, they do not find themselves naked of that humility and freedom from malice which is natural to children.

    —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • Do not condemn. Not even if your very eyes are seeing something, for they may be deceived. If we desire to find something to condemn, we will find it, whether or not it justly deserves criticism. But, it is important to realize, such an attitude comes not out of love, not out of a desire to truly make things better, but rather, to make ourselves look better than everyone else.

    —St. John Climacus