Quotes from Ephrem the Syrian

Let books be your dining table, / And you shall be full of delights. / Let them be your mattress,/And you shall sleep restful nights

Don't let your eyes look here and there, and don't look on someone elses' beauty, so that the devil will not conquer you with the help of your eyes.

Whoever fears God stands above all manner of fear. He has become a stranger to all the fear of this world and placed it far from himself, and no manner of trembling comes near him.

In the measure to which a man cuts off and humbles his own will, he proceeds toward success. But insofar as he stubbornly guards his own will, so much does he brings harm to himself.

Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.

Prayer is converse with God, equal honor with the Angels, progress in good things, averting of evils, righting of sinners.

Blessed the one who has become a good spiritual net and caught many for the good Lord, such a one will greatly praised by the Lord.

Blessed the one who, exalted by love, has become a city founded upon a mountain, from which the enemy, when he saw it, withdrew in fear, trembling at its security in the Lord.

No one is truly poor but except the one who lacks the truth.

Like the apple of Thine eye preserve me, O Lord God; defend me and beneath Thy wings shelter me from temptations.

Blessed the one who loves truth continually and has not lent his mouth as an instrument of impiety by lying, for he fears the commandment about idle speech.

Anyone who wants to be an example to others, must first examine himself.

O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive.

It is blasphemy if you pray before God while you are full of anger.

Blessed the one who meditates on death each day and destroys the base passions lurking in the vines of the heart, for he will be consoled in the moment of separation.

The seed, swollen with moisture, burst asunder its covering of soil and out peers the blade of wheat, full of symbols. So faith, whose bosom is filled with goodly fruits, is a blade of praise.