Saint John Chrysostom
Let us not overlook so great a gain.Collection: Gains
Fasting is a medicine.Collection: Medicine
Intemperance is a hydra with a hundred heads. She never stalks abroad unaccompanied with impurity, anger, and the most infamous profligacies.Collection: Hydra
I exhort and entreat you all, disregard what this man and that man thinks about these things, and inquire from the Scriptures all these things.Collection: Bible
There are many poor men and poor women: set apart some one constantly to remain there: let the poor man be though but as a guard to thy house: let him be to thee wall and fence, shield and spear. Where alms are, the devil dares not approach, nor any other evil thing.Collection: Wall
In the matter of piety, poverty serves us better than wealth, and work better than idleness, especially since wealth becomes an obstacle even for those who do not devote themselves to it.Collection: Matter
What shepherd feeds his sheep with his own blood? But Christ feeds us with His own Blood and in all things unites us to Himself.Collection: Sheep
When an archer desires to shoot his arrows successfully, he first takes great pains over his posture and aligns himself accurately with his mark. It should be the same for you who are about to shoot the head of the wicked devil. Let us be concerned first for the good order of sensations and then for the good posture of inner thoughts.'Collection: Pain
It may here be observed, that all who are offended by us are exposed to our view. But the rich man sees Lazarus not with any other righteous man, but in Abraham's bosom. For Abraham was full of love, but the man is convicted of cruelty. Abraham sitting before his door followed after those that passed by, and brought them into his house, the other turned away even them that abode within his gate.Collection: Men
Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade?Collection: Cheating
When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.Collection: Sex
Laughter does not seem to be a sin, but it leads to sin.Collection: Laughter
Let us return from that Table like lions breathing out fire, terrifying to the devil!Collection: Fire
The slave should be resigned to his lot, in obeying his master he is obeying God.Collection: Scary
When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out.Collection: Christian
The pains of hell are not the greatest part of hell; the loss of heaven is the weightiest woe of hell.Collection: Pain
In the Christian combat, not the striker, as in the Olympic contests, but he who is struck, wins the crown. This is the law in the celestial theatre, where the Angels are the spectators.Collection: Christian
Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.Collection: Mother
You see how many are the benefits of baptism, and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins, but we have enumerated ten honors [it bestows]! For this reason we baptize even infants, though they are not defiled by [personal] sins, so that there may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, and that they may be his [Christ's] membersCollection: Thinking
As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.Collection: Inspirational
Endurance is the queen of all virtues.Collection: Queens
Fasting of the body is food for the soul.Collection: Soul
What the soul is in the body, let Christians be in the world.Collection: Faith
How many there are who still say, 'I want to see His shape, His image, His clothing, His sandals.' Behold, you do see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him! You want to see His clothing. He gives Himself to you, not just to be seen but to be touched, to be eaten, to be received within .... Let all of you be ardent, fervent, enthusiastic. If the Jews stood, shoes on, staff in hand, and eating in haste, how much more vigilant should you be. They were about to go to Palestine; ... you are about to go to heaven.Collection: Hands
It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.Collection: Prayer
Imagine your anger to be a kind of wild beast, because it has ferocious teeth and claws, and if you don't tame it, it will devastate all things even corrupting the soul.Collection: Soul
It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone or seated in your shop ... while buying or selling ... or even while cooking.Collection: Prayer
What is it to be a fool for Christ? It is to control one's thoughts when they stray out of line. It is to make the mind empty and free.Collection: Spiritual
Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.Collection: Sins Not
A man's readiness and commitment are not enough if he does not enjoy help from above as well; equally help from above is no benefit to us unless there is also commitment and readiness on our part.Collection: Commitment
I hear no one boast, that he hath a knowledge of the Scriptures, but that he owneth a Bible written in golden characters. And tell me then, what profiteth this? The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.Collection: Book
Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil.Collection: Punishment
The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.Collection: Children
Nothing is more powerful than meekness. For as fire is extinguished by water, so a mind inflated by anger is subdued by meekness. By meekness we practice and make known our virtue, and also cause the indignation of our brother to cease, and deliver his mind from perturbation.Collection: Brother
Dost thou wish to receive mercy? Show mercy to thy neighbor.Collection: Wish
Memory of our good works makes us negligent and leads to arrogance. Do not think of your good deeds, so that God may remember them.Collection: Memories
What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger. Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well.Collection: Faith
Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.Collection: Christian
Surely we ought to show them (animals) great kindness and gentleness for many reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.Collection: Kindness
Please listen to me - you are not paying attention. I am talking to you about the Holy Scriptures, and you are looking at the lamps and the people lighting them. It is very frivolous to be more interested in what the lamplighters are doing... After all, I am lighting a lamp too - the lamp of God's Word.Collection: Talking
Yet, when we must put aside our wrath, quench our envy, soften our anger, offer our prayers, and show a disposition which is reasonable, mild, kindly, and loving, how could poverty stand in our way? For we accomplish these things not by spending money but by making the correct choice.Collection: Prayer
The Holy Scriptures do not know any distinctions. They enjoin that all lead the life of monks.Collection: Scripture
Him who is dead and gone honor with remembrance, not with tears.Collection: Christian
There is harm not only in trying to gain wealth but also in excessive concern with even the most necessary things. It is not enough to despise wealth, but you must also feed the poor and, more importantly, you must follow Christ.Collection: Spiritual
Before they committed the crime of crimes, before they killed their Master, before the cross, before the slaying of Christ, [Jewish sacrifices were] an abomination.Collection: Sacrifice
Labor: a powerful medicine.Collection: Powerful
For nothing so much disturbs the mind, though it be done for some beneficial purpose, as to innovate and introduce strange things, and most of all when this is done in matters relating to divine worship and the glory of God.Collection: Mind
A man does not possess all the gifts, lest he think that grace is nature.Collection: Christian
What gnats are compared with humans, so is the whole creation compared with God.Collection: Gnats