Quotes from John Cassian

...whoever is guided solely by his own judgment and decision will never climb up to the summit of perfection and will not fail to be the victim of the devil's ruinous power to delude.

...we should realize that there are three sources for our thoughts - God, the devil, and ourselves.

The thief who received the kingdom of heaven, though not as the reward of virtue, is a true witness to the fact that salvation is ours through the grace and mercy of God.

Humility, in its turn, can be achieved only through faith, fear of God, gentleness and the shedding of all possessions.

True knowledge is found only among those genuinely worshiping God.

The Doctor of our souls has placed the remedy in the hidden regions of the soul.

The bond between friends cannot be broken by chance; no interval of time or space can destroy it. Not even death itself can part true friends.

It is not an external enemy we dread. Our foe is shut up within ourselves. An internal warfare is daily waged by us.

For we not only discover God by admiring His incomprehensible essence, a thing which still lies hid in the hope of the promise, but we see Him through the greatness of His creation, and the consideration of His justice, and the aid of His daily providence:

when we gaze in unbounded admiration on that ineffable mercy of His, which with unwearied patience endures countless sins which are every moment being committed under His very eyes, or the call with which from no antecedent merits of ours, but by the free grace of His pity He receives us;

Live in the flesh but not according to the flesh.

Wherefore we hold that we ought to introduce only those things which we have described above, and which are adapted to the humble character of our profession and the nature of the climate, that the chief thing about our dress maybe not the novelty of the garb, which might give some offence to men of the world, but its honourable simplicity.

A busy monk is besieged by a single devil but an idle one is destroyed by spirits innumerable.

The bond between friends cannot be broken by chance; no interval of time or space can destroy it. Not even death itself can part true friends.

It is by means of these that we attain perfect love, through the grace and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory through all the ages. Amen.

No other virtue makes man more equal to the angels, than the imitation of their way of life.

It is a bigger miracle to be patient and refrain from anger than it is to control the demons which fly through the air.

A clear rule for self-control handed down by the Fathers is this: stop eating while still hungry and do not continue until you are satisfied.