Saint John Chrysostom Quotes

Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead

Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379 Humility is the root, mother, nurse, foundation, and bond of all virtue.

Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of our words, but on the fervor of our souls.

Prayer is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.

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.

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.

Good men do not always have grace and favor, lest they should be puffed up, and grow insolent and proud.

Words would be superfluous if we had deeds to show for Them.

Every trace of the old philosophy and literatureof the ancient world has vanished from the face of the earth.

Nothing causes us to so nearly resemble God as the forgiveness of injuries.

What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?

Just as those who are deprived of light cannot walk straight, so also those who do not behold the ray of the Holy Scriptures must necessarily sin, since they walk in the deepest darkness.

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.

God asks little, but He gives much.

I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish.

Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade?

What the soul is in the body, let Christians be in the world.

Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil.

The pains of hell are not the greatest part of hell; the loss of heaven is the weightiest woe of hell.

Fasting of the body is food for the soul.

You [Jews] did slay Christ, you did lift violent hands against the Master, you did spill his precious blood. This is why you have no chance for atonement, excuse, or defense.

Musicke doth withdraw our mindes from earthly cogitations, lifteth up our spirits into heaven, maketh them light and celestial.

Thus abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one.

Sin makes man a coward; but a life in the Truth of Christ makes Him bold.

Hell is paved with priests' skulls.

Every man is the painter and the sculptor of his own life.

The Holy Scriptures lead us to God and open the path to the knowledge of God.

Every time that we sin, we are born of the devil. But every time that we do good, we are born of God.

He that enjoys naught without thanksgiving is as though he robbed God.

Laughter has been implanted in our soul, that the soul may sometime be refreshed.

The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give the example of, a virtuous life.

This is the highest point of philosophy, to be simple & wise; this is the angelic life.

Endurance is the queen of all virtues.

The drunken man is a living corpse.

Intemperance is a hydra with a hundred heads. She never stalks abroad unaccompanied with impurity, anger, and the most infamous profligacies.

No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.

Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground; for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep her fruit till it be ripe.

Where dance is, there is the devil.

Woman is a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill.

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.

Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.

And all men are ready to pass judgement on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.

That is true plenty, not to have, but not to want riches.

...there is nothing that has been created without some reason, even if human nature is incapable of knowing precisely the reason for them all.

The Holy Scriptures do not know any distinctions. They enjoin that all lead the life of monks.

Him who is dead and gone honor with remembrance, not with tears.

Fasting is a medicine.

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.

Glory be to God for all things!

A man does not possess all the gifts, lest he think that grace is nature.