Two main reasons may be given of it, why students should be more subject to this malady [melancholy] than others. The one is, they live a sedentary, solitary life, sibi et musis, free from bodily exercise, and those ordinary disports which other men use: and many times if discontent and idleness concur with it, which is too frequent, they are precipitated into this gulf on a sudden: but the common cause is overmuch study; too much learning (as Festus told Paul) hath made thee mad; ’tis that other extreme which effects it.
SUBSECT. XV.– Love of Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression on the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton
Category: KNOWLEDGE
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“He [Pope Kyrillos VI] also really emphasized reading as a part of prayer. Reading is intellect to prayer.”
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we want to keep ourselves from putting blame for our misfortune on anybody else, no matter how obviously it may appear to be the fault of another person. Misfortune is meant to give us a bigger purpose than looking for someone to blame. It is to draw our attention to God and our need for God to bring us to repentance.
—Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity
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When looking at our personal circumstances, then, we never measure them by someone else’s circumstances. The teaching of our holy counselors is: Do not compare yourself to others in anything (Barsanuphius). Just compare your performance (your response to God’s calling and purpose for you, they say, with the gifts you have been given to enable you to obey that calling. Then instead of regretting that we do not have the good fortune some others have, our only regrets are for occasions when we’ve failed to use the gifts God has given us to fulfill the blessed purpose for which he has called us.
We are all called to overcome different obstacles. You are called that you should inherit a blessing (I Pet. 3:9), says the Bible. Some people are called to overcome psychological problems, some physical illnesses, some persecution, some slavery, some injustices of all kinds, some martyrdom.
—Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity
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You can’t resent other people because you let yourself down. But you can try.
—John Tottenham -
No one should be burdened with the “failure” label just for playing their hand in the grand game of life. It’s undeniable that some people have the fortune to start with a strong hand, graced with physical beauty, social grace, or remarkable talents. Or, perhaps, they simply emerged from the right door, under the right star.
Bimbo Ubermensch
The Ocean -
We all have value.
We all contribute. We all give back—if not through paid work, then as part of the human ecosystem.
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However, I know that it is not because of your strength, your long hours of studying, or your own understanding that you passed this milestone, but it was through God’s great strength and blessings that you succeeded. Do you also believe this?
—Fr. Mina the Hermit (Pope Kyrillos VI) to his nephew Hegumen Philemon Labib
via Pope Kyrillos: The Patron and Beloved of the Children, Fr. Rafael Ava Mina
SO GOOD QUOTES 