• For many it would mean great renunciation and discipline to give up these sources of noise: but they know that is what they need. Afraid to do it because their neighbors would think they were bats.

    —Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas

    The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise
    Cardinal Robert Sarah

  • In the noise of everyday life there is always a certain agitation that is stirred up in man. Noise is never serene, and it is not conducive to understanding another person. How right Pascal was when he wrote in his Pensées: “All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.”

    The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise
    Cardinal Robert Sarah

  • “You ask about eternal life, yet show yourself completely bound to the enjoyment of this present life.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • You will lose nothing of what you have renounced for the Lord’s sake. For in its own time it will return to you greatly multiplied.

    —St. Mark the Ascetic

  • Let not we who are reasonable show ourselves to be more savage than the unreasoning animals. For even the animals use in common the plants that grow naturally from the earth. Flocks of sheep graze together upon the same hillside, herds of horses feed upon the same plain, and all living creatures permit each other to satisfy their need for food. But we hoard what is common, and keep for ourselves what belongs to many others.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “Are you poor? You know someone who is even poorer. You have provisions for only ten days, but someone else has only enough for one day.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “Truly, this is the worst kind of avarice: not even to share perishable goods with those in need.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • Wells become more productive if they are drained completely, while they silt up if they are left standing. Thus wealth left idle is of no use to anyone, but put to use and exchanged it becomes fruitful and beneficial for the public.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “You, however, have regard for gold, but not for your own brothers and sisters. You recognize the inscription on the face of a coin, and can tell the counterfeit from the genuine, but you completely ignore your brothers and sisters in their time of need.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • “It is equally difficult to preserve one’s soul from despair in hard times, and to prevent it from becoming arrogant in prosperous circumstances.”

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice