Category: KNOWLEDGE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE

  • “Better a stupid and unlettered brother who, working the good things he knows, merits life in Heaven than one who though being distinguished for his learning in the Scriptures, or even holding the place of a doctor, lacks the bread of love.”

    —St. Bede the Venerable

  • A wandering mind is made stable by reading, vigil and prayer. Flaming lust is extinguished by hunger, labor, and solitude. Stirrings of anger are calmed by psalmody, magnanimity, and mercifulness. All this has its effect when used at its proper time and in due measure. Everything untimely or without proper measure is short-lived; and short-lived things are more harmful than useful.

    —Abba Evagrius the Monk

  • I’m so learned, but I don’t know how to live.

  • I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that’s your responsibility as a person, as a human being — to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you don’t contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you’re not thinking.

    —Malcolm Gladwell

  • “Welcome words of truth and to never reject criticism uncritically.”

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

    “Are you listening to what I’m saying, or are you just being offended?”

    —Fr. Anthony Messeh

    “Do not excuse yourself or refuse to be corrected by all; listen to every reproof with a serene countenance; think that God utters it.”

    —St. John of the Cross

    If it hurts to hear it, look for the truth in it.

    —@naval

    But if any one’s conscience attacks him, he himself is responsible for it, not my words.

    Saint John Chrysostom, On the Vanity of Riches
    HOMILY TWO
    After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive

  • Anger squanders knowledge,
    Forbearance gathers it in.

    —Evagrius Ponticus

  • I decided quite a long time ago that when I write, I will only write that which is meaningful to me personally. If it happens to be meaningful to someone else, this is encouraging and provides the reason for continuing to maintain this blog.

    —Fr. Sergei Sveshnikov, Putting My Mouth Where My Writing Is

  • But in order to pronounce a book bad it is not enough to discover that it elicits no good response from ourselves, for that might be our fault.

    —C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

    There is an unconscious antagonism in us to anything that threatens our ingrained prejudices, and challenges us to grow. Because we are reluctant to admit our intolerance of a different viewpoint, we project the problem onto the text and proclaim, “This is a hard saying and who can bear with it?” We blame the text for our unwillingness to receive.

    —Fr. Michael Casey, OCSO

    “There is no book so bad…that it does not have something good in it.”

    —Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

  • “In this world, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”

    Elwood P. Dowd | Harvey (film)

  • “How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. They make us think that we really understand things of which we have no practical knowledge at all.”

    —Thomas Merton