SO GOOD QUOTES

  • Some people walk around all day with unexplained sadness, unreasonable anger, unreasonable hatred, unreasonable jealousy, envy—what is all this garbage from? Some walk around all day in the word of God, in the spiritual life, in the thoughts of the heavenly, in the desires of eternity, in fulfilling the commandments, in seeing light, in rejoicing always.

    —Fr. Mina Dimitri

  • We cannot withdraw love without damaging ourselves. I have been badly hurt again but I see this morning that it does not really matter because I perceive the truth. Rage is the deprived infant in me but there is also a compassionate mother in me and she will come back with her healing powers in time.

    ― May Sarton, Recovering: A Journal

  • The reasons for anger were often childish or irrelevant and the anger left us always dismayed by our failure toward each other, but the fact is that neither of us could command the necessary tolerance.

    —May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

  • Last night was not easy, with the cold moon-glare outside and my harsh thoughts toward my anger. The full horror of these storms is, of course, the harm they do to those one loves. For days afterward I am forced to try to come to terms with myself and to face the destroyer and breaker in me. I do not feel remorse so much as shame.

    —May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

  • These angers are crippling, like a fit when they happen, and then, when they are over, haunting me with remorse. Those who know me well and love me have come to accept them as part of me; yet I know they are unacceptable.

    —May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

  • We complain that we require solitude, as if we should find the virtue of patience there where nobody provokes us. We say that the reason of our disturbance does not spring from our own impatience, but from the fault of our brethren. And while we lay the blame of our fault on others, we shall never be able to reach the goal of patience and perfection.

    —St. John Cassian

  • No matter how just your words may be, you ruin everything when you speak with anger.


    —St. John Chrysostom

  • One of the saints said, “Those who come closest to Christ achieve the greatest victories.” What does that mean? It means that if you’re generous, and kind, you’re giving, you might overcome anger inside your heart, you might overcome resentment, hatred, lack of forgiveness inside your heart.

    —Fr. Mina Dimitri

  • “I could have yelled, I could have screamed, I could have hit them…”

    Is this an act of mercy? I don’t understand. This is the basic — this is a thought you should reject, this  isn’t a thought you should be proud that you rejected. This is not an act of kindness offered.

    This is not an act of mercy, this is you not being able to control yourself.

    Sometimes people look at their inability to control themselves as an act of mercy—this is being cruel, this is the mind of the wicked.

    —Fr. Mina Dimitri

  • “Any spiritual struggle carried out by a quick tempered man is wasted. He’s undisciplined, out of control, unpredictable. An impassioned hot-head clouds his judgment, and robs him all sense of proportion so that he overreacts, brings ruin to the community and upon himself.“

    —St. Antony