• Abandon looking at and envying those who are ahead of you in the world.

    Abba Arsenius The Tutor of the Emperor’s Sons
    Bishop Macarius

  • Let all carnal sweetness be as bitterness to you; carnal loss, as gain.

    —St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

  • If you find yourself in the company of people conversing about either worldly or spiritual matters, give the impression that you too are contributing something, while saying nothing that harms the soul. Bear in mind that you should avoid their praises, lest you appear to them to be silent and are later burdened by this. However, even if you do this, make sure that you do not condemn them as speaking much, simply because you are saying little. For you do not know whether what will burden you will actually be the one word that you have spoken rather than the many words that they have spoken.

    “Other Old Man” John, Letters From The Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)

  • If the heart is vigilant (Song 5.2), then sleep is nothing for the body; this is like a person who is almost snoring and, when he hears robbers breaking in, does everything possible to escape them. Thus, if we are able to understand, we shall see that we are exactly like this.

    “Other Old Man” John, Letters From The Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)

  • If you have something to eat and notice your thought wanting to eat alone on account of desire and not of need, in this respect you do not regard him as yourself. Even if you only have enough for whatever you need, if you do not give him some of this, in this respect you do not regard him as yourself.“

    Other Old Man” John, Letters From The Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)

  • A sign of wisdom is not believing everything you think.

    —Adam Grant

  • A Man Called Ove (2012)

  • “If you’re willing to take the blame when you deserve it, people will give you the responsibility.”

    —Gretchen Rubin

  • …he shut all the doors of the world within himself—the desires and the needs—he gave up everything…he neglected the bodily needs so that they no longer had any authority over him. After he had tasted, participated, and lived with Christ…what need did he have for anything else?

    A Silent Patriarch: Kyrillos VI (1902 -1971), Life and Legacy
    Fr. Daniel Fanous

  • “A bad day doesn’t need to mean bad deeds. A stressful day doesn’t need to mean bad reactions. We all have stressful days. We all have bad days. And these are the days we are supposed to deal with properly. A good tree does not suddenly bring forth bad fruit because there is a storm—it’s still a good tree. Whatever happens around us, whatever happens within us, it should never be a justification to a bad result.”

    —Bishop Angaelos