SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: LOVE

  • St. Dorotheus of Gaza says there are two kinds of fear: one is the kind of fear that a beginner has and the other the kind of fear that a Saint has. The first person [the beginner] fears God because he is afraid of hell, he is afraid of punishment, he is afraid that at the end of days, he’ll be cast into darkness.

    The other Saint fears God because he seeks to please God because he loves Him. The fear is not of somebody being afraid of some kind of punishment, but because somebody has tasted the sweetness of God, the sweetness of being with God, and because of that, fears losing his relationship with God. St. Dorotheus of Gaza calls this the perfect fear: not a fear of punishment—not a fear of hell, but a fear of upsetting the one he loves.

    —Fr. Daniel Fanous
    Fear God, but don’t be afraid

  • Respect the opinion of the person with whom you speak, no matter how much you disagree.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III

  • The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward. The perfect person does good through love. His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does. He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward. The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God.

    —St. Clement of Alexandria, A Perfect Person’s Rule of Life

  • “The love of God is not taught. No one has taught us to enjoy the light or to be attached to life more than anything else. And no one has taught us to love the two people who brought us into the world and educated us. Which is all the more reason to believe that we did not learn to love God as a result of outside instruction.”

    +St. Basil the Great

  • “‘Overcome evil with good.’ [Romans 12:21]  For you cannot conquer evil with evil, just as you cannot put out fire by fire, but only by water.”

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • If the “meaning” of life or the “solution” to life’s problems could be summed up in one word, I believe that word would be love. This is a conclusion I have reached through my (hereto) thirty-four years of life; but although I often change my opinion on major topics as I get older, I believe that no matter how long I will yet live, on this point my mind will never change. I cannot see any virtue that comes close to this one in the blessings and fruit it produces, and I have never seen any loss that has produced more hurt and pain than the loss of love.

    What is the Best Part of Life?  The Value of Love and Connecting with Others

  • Happiness and unhappiness depend on how much Love you have. 

    —Monk Simon of Mt. Athos

  • Strive as hard as you can to love every man. If you cannot yet do this, at least do not hate anybody.

    —St Maximos the Confessor

  • This thought of yours is wicked; for it wants to prevent you from correcting your brother. Therefore, do not prevent yourself from speaking; but rather, speak according to God.

    For, indeed, even sick people that are being healed will speak against their doctors; yet, the latter do not care, knowing that the same people will thank them afterward.

    Letters from the Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)

  • As a child I was always borrowing other people’s families, being invited for a week or a month in the summer to share a family life.

    Journal of a Solitude
    May Sarton