Respect the opinion of the person with whom you speak, no matter how much you disagree.
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You are angry with your neighbour, your brother, and say of him: “He is such and such—a miser, malicious, proud,” or that he has done this and that, and so on. What is that to you? He sins against God, and not against you. God is his Judge, not you: unto God he shall answer for himself, not to you. Know yourself, how sinful you are yourself, what a beam you have in your own eye; how difficult it is for you to master and get the better of your own sins; how afflicted you yourself are by them; how they have ensnared you—how you wish for indulgence from others towards your own infirmities. And your brother is a man like you; therefore you must be indulgent to him as to a sinful man, similar in everything to yourself, as infirm as you; love him, then, as yourself, listening to the Lord saying: “These things I command you, that ye love one another”. [John 15.17]
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
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“No one has ever properly understood me, I have never fully understood anyone; and no one understands anyone else.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe -
If your mood and motivation are low, are telling you not to act, that’s all the more reason to act. Yes, feeling good can lead to action, but action can also lead to feeling good.
—Brad Stulberg, Mood Follows Action -
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 -
“Prayer is a great blessing…both when we receive what we ask and when we do not receive it. For when He gives and when He does not give, He does it for your good. Thus when you receive what you ask, it is quite clear that you have received it; but when you do not receive it, you also receive, because you thus do not receive what is undoubtedly harmful for you; and not to receive what is harmful means to be granted what is useful. So whether you receive what you ask or not, give thanks to God in the belief that God would have always given us what we ask were it not often better for us not to receive it… Prayer is a great weapon, a rich treasure, a wealth that is never exhausted, an undisturbed refuge, a cause of tranquility, the root of a multitude of blessings and their source.”
—St. John Chrysostom -
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”
—Wendell Berry, “Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms” -
Imagine an absolutely clear glass filled with water. One look will tell whether the water is clean or not, and if dirty, how dirty. So will it be with us when we cross into the other world. Every impulse, however transient, of our heart, every thought, leaves its mark on the general sum of our life. Suppose that just once during the whole course of my earthly existence and evil thought crossed my mind…this single thought will leave a black spot on the body of my life, unless it be wiped out by repentant self-condemnation. Nothing can be hidden. We often reassure ourselves with the thought that nobody saw us, no one knows what we think or do. But when we begin to strive our utmost to prepare for eternity, everything is different and we yearn to be rid of all that is soiled within us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). Through sincere repentance and vigorous self-conviction before God and our fellows the inner man is cleansed – the water in the glass, passed through the spiritual filter or repentance, becomes pure again…So long as we have life there is the possibility of reformation.
—Elder Sophrony, of blessed memory
SO GOOD QUOTES 