“If Moses, when he attempted to draw near the burning bush, was prohibited until he should remove the shoes from his feet, how should you not free yourself of every thought that is colored by passion seeing that you wish to see One who is beyond every thought and perception?”
“Limiting one's intake of water helps a great deal to obtain temperance. This was well understood by the three hundred Israelites accompanying Gideon just when they were preparing to attack Midian.”
“If you remember the Judge only when you are in difficulties as one who inspires fear and who is incorruptibly honest, then you have not as yet learned to "serve the Lord in fear and to rejoice in him with trembling." For understand this point well: one is to worship him even in spiritual relaxations and in times of good cheer with even more piety and reverence.”
“The teeth of sinners are thoughts foreign to reason coming to us on account of our nature by which our enemies approach us, just like using their teeth time after time again to devour our flesh. That is, those [are] things that spring forth from the flesh: "Manifest are the works of the flesh," as the apostle says.”
“Whenever we realize the reasons why we suffer and are tested, then our minds are greatly opened.”
“The holy temple of God is Christ, concerning which "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." In the fear of God each one turns away from evil; in fear he worships in the temple of the Lord that is Christ.”
“The ones who are burning are those who have received the flaming arrows of the devil.”
“[By contrast] the righteous person praises God at all times.”
“The sinner is the one who sins out of lust and weakness; the wicked one is he who follows after evil with a deliberated plan.”
“If the eyes of God look on the poor, let us be numbered among the poor, so that the eyes of the Lord may look down on us. If the rich do not become poor, very little will the eyes of the Lord look on them.”
“If the one who values iniquity hates his own life, then the one who hates iniquity esteems his own life.”
“First the righteous fail, then the truth is diminished. Not only is there no truth among the righteous, there is no holiness among honest people. Now, since the righteous have failed, truth is diminished. Perhaps the poverty of righteous people is the reason why so many heresies have shot up.”
“The inheritance is the contemplation of the present and future ages; the inheritance of Christ is the understanding of God.”
“If the line is measured, how is it written the Gospel of John: "For God gives the Spirit without measure" and "I will pour out my spirit on you." Perhaps by chance it is called "measure" not in terms of knowledge itself but on account of him who receives it, because its receptivity cannot be greater. The rain itself also may exceed the measure, yet it is measured in that vessel in which it is received.”
“Even if now [the way] is full of pain and without joy, later it will bear the fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained in it.”
“Through impure thoughts our adversary like a lion overcomes our mind.”
“When we compare spiritual things with spiritual things, we flash forth lightnings, indicating the knowledge advancing from them.”
“He who sits on the right of the Father corrects us with discipline, and accordingly he teaches us. For he directs the spirit with a right foundation; true understanding leads one into fullness.”
“If you pray against your passions or the demons that assail you recall to mind [this verse].… You are to say this at the appropriate moment, thus arming yourself against your adversary with humility.”
“If fighters find themselves being assailed and assailing in return, and if the demons fight against us, then they too when they assail us will be assailed by us in return. Scripture says, "I will assail them, and they will not be able to stand"; and again, "Those who assail me and are my enemies, they have weakened and fallen."”
“People rejoice in riches, or in glory or in nobility of birth, but the righteous in the salvation of God.”
“Christ is the crown of the rational nature.”
“One who cultivates pure prayer will hear noises, crashings, voices and tormenting screams that come from the demons; yet he will not suffer collapse or surrender his thoughts if he says to God, "I shall fear no evil, for you are with me."”
“Truly Judas ascended onto the mountain of the Lord, but he did not stand in his holy place. He was not innocent in hands or pure in heart, but a thief who was taking the money.”
“When people remember, they stir up within themselves the thoughts of things they had known before. But God, when he is mindful of the rational nature, is in that very nature. It is said that he is mindful of him into whom he comes.”
“If someone has mastered irascibility, he has mastered the demons, but if someone is a slave to this passion, he is a complete … stranger to the ways of our Savior, since the Lord is said to teach the gentle his ways.”
“One who says and does everything so that he may know God always has the eyes of his soul toward the Lord. If one does not receive the spirit of the adoption of the children, he is not made a brother of Christ, nor is the power of the holy made effectual in him; let him say that he is an only child and poor in riches having been deprived of knowledge.”
“Hope does not shame. She is the daughter of uprightness, and uprightness is the offspring of patience, and patience is birthed really in trials that the virtues receive from the enemy and by which the understanding of God is cut off.”
“If Christ our God is truth, as indeed he said, "I am the Truth" and if David in truth was pleasing to God, surely David was pleasing to God in God.”
“Our mind is the rational altar on which we burn all irrational thoughts with the fire sent from the Father.… When the soul reflects on itself, it encompasses the altar of God, nor does it seek a corner of corruption.… Contemplation is the altar of corporeal and incorporeal things by which my mind is cleansed. One who embraces it, that is, learning, declares all the marvels of God.”
“One who follows the active life wages war by his own virtues with alien virtues. One who follows the contemplative life using true dogmas destroys every thought opposed to the knowledge of God.”
“The strong heart is that which is not filled with false doctrines or impure thoughts.”
“The voice of the Lord extinguishes the burning arrows of evil. That voice is the spiritual teaching that calls the ones believing in Christ grounded in wisdom.”
“All who are mindful of the mercy of God confess him.”
“In the same way that wrath arises from the indignation of God, so even life is generated from his will. If "life" indicates knowledge, … then wrath denotes lack of knowledge. Death is a turning from life. Wrath, then, indicates death, a deprivation of contemplation.”
“Mourning turns to joy and the understanding of God to action.”
“Not only does God free us into righteousness but also into temperance, fortitude and love. He uses "righteousness" to embrace all virtues. Perhaps he understands "Christ" for "righteousness." "He is made wisdom to us by God and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption."”
“He leads through right faith and works and nourishes through his own understanding.”
“Here spirit indicates mind. The mind that clings to God is one spirit.”
“The reasons of temptation, when they are realized, provide a broad plane for the soul.”
“Nothing darkens the mind like unbridled wrath.”
“One who speaks falsely receives mercy when he becomes silent. He gives up deceit.”
“Strong spirits do not wax old from continual shouting to God, but they are renewed from day to day. From silence they wax old, entangling people who are corrupted through false desires.”
“A righteous person accuses himself at the beginning of his speech.”
“Pray first to receive tears, so that through compunction you may be able to mollify the wildness that is in your soul, and, having confessed against yourself your transgression to the Lord, you may obtain forgiveness from him.”
“He calls the irrational movement of spirit "horse" and "mule." Intellect is rational thinking and judgment.”
“The Lord is wise, so by rejoicing in the Lord, the righteous rejoice in wisdom.”
“Praise is the movement of the spirit translated from ignorance to virtue and knowledge.”
“The plans of the nations and the councils of the leaders and the understanding of the peoples are tested by the Lord as contrary to his will—who desires all people to come to salvation and truth.”
“The demons do not know our hearts, as some people think, for the Lord alone is "knower of hearts," "who knows the mind of human beings" and "who alone fashioned their hearts." Rather, [demons] recognize the many mental representations that are in the heart on the basis of a word that is expressed and movements of the body.”
“The heart of the righteous does not delight in food and drink but in justice, knowledge and wisdom.”
“If we taste the Lord, we taste through faith. If he is good, it is through the knowledge of his goodness that we taste.”
“He who conquers in war reduces the enemies to slavery: Christ has overcome the world. Hence, … all become his servants.”
“I think this speaks about the cross on which the devil falls unknowingly. For if he had known never would he have affixed the Lord of glory to the cross.”
“Fruitless is the soul that births nothing good and does good for no one.”
“Those who are baptized into Christ put on Christ; this is justice and wisdom. Those who are baptized into Satan are clothed in confusion and shame.”
“Since the fount is life and life is Christ, the fount is Christ.… By meditating on what is made we will see Christ, and in understanding Christ, we will see God.”
“Pride is an unsound vehicle, and one who gets into it is quickly thrown. The humble person always stands firm, and the foot of pride will never trip him.”
“Nothing else is destroyed but that which is cut off from God.”
“When one of the enemies approaches to wound you and you want to "turn his own sword back against his heart," according to the Scripture text, then do as we tell you. Distinguish within yourself the thought he has launched against you, as to what it is, how many elements it consists of and among these what sort of thing it is that most afflicts the mind.… As you engage in this careful examination, the thought will be destroyed and dissipate in its own consideration, and the demon will flee from you when your intellect has been raised to the heights by this knowledge.”
“In temptation, good words flee from us and the spirit is silent. The soul speaks about those temptations that it recognizes and is silent about those it does not. In this place "good" indicates the virtues and knowledge that flee in the time of temptation.”
“The end of the rational nature is the understanding of the holy Trinity.”
“The pit of misery is evil and ignorance.… The rock is faith in Christ. "And he directs my steps" by actions and true teachings.”
“After we are made free from all unbridled emotion, we sing a new song, having been renewed in our home.”
“Nothing nourishes like that which nourishes the spirit. Blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh.”
“Seeing that God is Creator, he is in everything made; seeing that he is excellence and wisdom, he is in all holy powers.… God is even in people sometimes in excellence, sometimes in accomplishment: it is of angels to behave always according to God; of demons, never; of people to behave sometimes rightly, sometimes not.”
“When we come up against the demon of acedia, then with tears let us divide the soul and have one part offer consolation and the other receive consolation. And sowing within ourselves goodly hopes, let us chant with holy David this [verse].”
“It is of the greatest ignorance to think that God is in a place. God does not stand in a place. He is free.”
“The holy mount of God is Christ. His tabernacle indwells the virtues of the righteous.”
“Blessed is the one engaged in praise the whole day, namely, through his life, which lacks the uproar of emotions and is filled with an understanding of God.”
“The sword separates the spirit from evil and the mind from ignorance, destroying the old man and making him new in Christ.”
“The city of God, or the church, is the reasonable spirit. The flowing of the river is the gifts of the Spirit.”
“In this place the writer understands the worst habits and wicked thoughts in the words of bow, weapons and bucklers.”
“Pray as is fitting and without trouble, practice psalmody with understanding and harmony, and you will be like a young eagle soaring in the heights.”
“The throne of God is Christ. The throne of Christ is the reasonable nature.”
“Joy is rooted in Christ.… His root is God the Word, which is in himself.”
“The right hand of God is Christ, who is filled with righteousness and from his fullness we receive everything.”
“One who is in a calm spirit sings psalms. Through psalms he opens teaching. Through tranquility of spirit he understands teaching.”
“Our God will come openly. Our God is Christ. Christ will come openly in the flesh. We, therefore, understand that openly means "in the flesh." And this flesh is perceived by the senses.”
“All created things are under the providence of God. Does not even one sparrow fall without the Father who is in heaven knowing?”
“Discipline is the moderation of the emotions.”
“The cowl is a symbol of the charity of God our Savior. It protects the most important part of the body and keeps us, who are children in Christ, warm. Thus it can be said to afford protection against those who attempt to strike and wound us. Consequently, all who wear this cowl on their heads sing these words aloud: "If the Lord does not build the house and keep the city, in vain does the builder labor and the watchman stand his guard." Such words as these instill humility and root out that long-standing evil, which is pride and which caused Lucifer, who rose like the day star in the morning, to be cast down to the earth.”
“A proverb is a saying that, under the guise of physical things, signifies intelligible things.”
“Wisdom and understanding must precede, in order for the fear of God to coexist along with them.”
“Those who forget the law are the ones who violate it; yet those who remember the law are the ones who live in accordance with the law. Likewise, those who observe the sayings of God are those who keep them, and those who destroy them are those who do not want to follow them. "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be justified."”
“By "ant" Solomon seems to indicate the practical way, while the "bee" designates contemplation of creation and of the Creator. Both the pure and the impure, the wise and the foolish apply [this saying] for the benefit of their souls. It seems to me that the wax corresponds to the realities of creation, while the honey symbolizes the contemplation thereof. And while wax perishes, as it is written, "Heaven and earth will pass away," the honey does not perish. By the same token, the words of Christ our Savior do not pass away, about which Solomon says, "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, their sweetness is health to the soul." Also, David says, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"”
“If the life of the wicked is malicious and the Lord will overturn it, then it is clear that at some point the wicked will no longer be wicked. For, after that "reversal," "the Lord will pass the kingdom over to God the Father," so that God may be "all in all."”
“"A man's gift" is called an upright life. It is that gift that "makes room for him" and makes him worthy of the fullness of God. It is that very thing which is called the "throne" of the holy powers. Indeed, the "throne" of the mind is that excellent state which they maintain who are seated in a position that is fixed or immovable.”
“"Richness" of knowledge and wisdom "brings us many angels," but an impure person is even separated from the angel given to him at birth. Spiritual friendship is virtue and knowledge of God, through which we bind ourselves to friendship with the holy powers. Thus it is said that human beings who repent give cause for joy to the angels. Thus also the Savior calls his servants "friends," since they are ready to receive greater wisdom. So also Abraham, rich in knowledge, offered that mystical table to the friends who appeared to him in the middle of the day.”
“It belongs to angels never to have evil desires; it is human sometimes to have evil desires and other times not to have them; it belongs to demons always to have evil desires. The expression "all the day" signifies the entire life. So also, "continue in the fear of the Lord all the day" applies to the whole life.”
“He who has opened his heart through purity, contemplates the words of God in their practical, physical and theological sense. Accordingly, the whole corpus of Scripture may be divided into three parts: ethical, physical and theological. Consequently, Proverbs corresponds to the first part, Ecclesiastes to the second, and Song of Songs to the third.”
“The one who moves the boundaries of piety demonstrates either superstition or impiety. And the one who moves the boundaries of courage changes it into either audacity or cowardice. In the same manner, this applies to other virtues as well as to dogmas and other matters of faith. This especially pertains to the doctrine of the holy Trinity. Thus, whoever rejects the divinity of the Holy Spirit rejects baptism; and whoever names some others as gods introduces a whole pantheon of gods.”
“The divine Scripture should be understood in an intellectual and spiritual sense, because the knowledge of sense perception, literally understood, is not the truth.”
“As the ancient saying goes, soul is the mother of the mind, because it is the soul which leads the mind to enlightenment by means of practical virtues.”
“Solomon frequently mentions "friend" and "friendship." Therefore, it is fitting now to look into what he means by friendship. He says [in effect] that grace and friendship liberate. Also, the Savior in the gospels says to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Again, Paul writes, "Christ freed us from the curse of the law." Hence, if "friendship sets free" and "truth sets free" and the Savior sets free, then Christ is both truth and friendship. Therefore, all who possess the knowledge of Christ are friends to each other. Therefore, the Savior calls his disciples "friends," and John the Baptist is a friend of the bridegroom, and so are Moses and all the saints. And it is in virtue of that friendship alone, that his friends are also friends to each other.”
“The church is [the assembly] of pure souls. It is the true knowledge of the ages and worlds and about their judgment and provision. Ecclesiastes is Christ, the author of that knowledge. Or, Ecclesiastes is one who, having purified the soul by moral contemplation, leads his or her soul to the contemplation of the physical [world].”
“To those who have entered into the church of the mind and marvel in contemplation of what has come into being, the text says, Do not think that this is the ultimate end or that these are the promises that have been stored up for you. For all these things are [only] vanity of vanities before the knowledge of one's God. For, just as it is futile for medicine [to seek] a final cure, so is it useless [to seek] after knowledge of the Holy Trinity in the ideas of the [present] ages and worlds.”
“The number by which God numbers the saints displays a certain and determined spiritual order, as it is said, "He numbers the multitudes of stars; and calls them all by name." … Now, if David says, the understanding of God is without number, it is not as though it were unworthy of God's essence that it cannot be numbered, or because the nature of such a number cannot be comprehended. For, just as the word invisible has two meanings: first, when applied to something that by its very nature is invisible (e.g., God), and second, when applied to something that may be visible yet is not normally seen, like the ocean floor because it is hidden under waters; similarly, "innumerable" has two meanings: what cannot be numbered by nature and what cannot be numbered for some other reason.”
“I have seen, he says, the material world that preoccupies human minds, that which God gave to the human race prior to its cleansing so that they would occupy themselves. He means here that the beauty of the material world is temporal, not eternal. For, after cleansing, the one who is pure no longer needs to view material things only as a diversion of the mind. Rather, he can also use them in spiritual contemplation.”
“If those are "blessed who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" and at the same time the kingdom of heaven is the totality of the ideas of the things that have been and will come into being, then it follows that the persecuted are blessed because they have insight into the knowledge of created things.”
“By "fate" he means everything that is part of the life of anyone in this world, whether that person is righteous or unrighteous—things such as life, death, sickness, health, affluence, poverty, loss of limbs, of wives, children or possessions. In all these it is impossible to discern between the righteous and unrighteous before the last judgment. He also says that both have in common the fact that they are taken from dust and will return to dust. They also have one soul, not by number but by nature. For the Spirit, he says, "is one [and the same] in all." Here he calls a man, who was born in honor, a beast instead of labeling him as someone of understanding. It is because of his foolish desires that he is compared with the senseless beasts and that he ends up becoming like them. And not even through their acts can the righteous and unrighteous be clearly distinguished before the day of judgment, because a good number of the unrighteous become righteous and are elevated, while a good number of the righteous abandon virtue and are debased. "What is the advantage of the righteous over the ungodly?" In this present time, he says, there is no advantage. Everything is vanity except for the spiritual joy that naturally occurs to each according to his deeds and virtues.”
“I have seen, he says, every sort of wickedness and boldness in the one who is evil. For, such a one [as Satan] thinks he is brave even when in [his] ungodliness he oppresses the poor or again, sees himself as a "creature" who was "made to be mocked by the angels" of God. Also I have seen all the jealousy that he has acquired towards human beings, which is vain and governs his heart, since God certainly "will become all in all." And when God does so, this will fulfill the prayer of Christ, which said, "Grant that they also may be one in us, as you and I are one, Father."”
“The "chasing after wind," I believe, refers to the will of the soul caught up with passions. That is why a handful of virtue is better than two handfuls of wickedness, ignorance and "chasing after wind." … It is as if someone said it is better to learn contemplation of one spiritual thing than to have numerous visions of foolish wisdom.”
“"We do not know how to pray as we ought." He is not so much talking [about prayer] at this point as issuing a command not to theologize thoughtlessly. Indeed, anyone who belongs to this material world and whose thoughts have their origin in this world cannot speak about God without error—or on other matters that elude the senses. That is why he says, "And let your words be few," that is, they should be true and well chosen. I think also that "few" means the same as in the following texts: "Better a little with righteousness than an abundance of riches with sinners." And, "Better is the receiving of a little with righteousness." But to those who do not observe this, he says, "For as a dream comes when there are many cares, so is the fool's voice with many words." …He also talks about "the voice of a fool," coming up with false words and beguiling the soul. This is "the voice of the slanderer and reviler." He is also able to apply this to the voice of the fool who "by a multitude of words you will not escape sin."”
“If, he says, you see among people those on the one hand who are oppressed and those on the other who do wrong in judgment, and still others who practice justice, do not be amazed that this occurs as if there were no divine foresight. Rather, know that God guards everything through Christ and that he also exercises his provision over everything through his holy angels, who excel in their knowledge of earthly events. God is the ruler of the world that he created, and he allots suffering to those who prefer greed and the vanity of this life to knowledge of Christ. But to those who live their lives in goodness, conduct themselves with courage and serve justly, he grants the knowledge of God and a peaceful rest. He grants this whether their knowledge was small or great here, for "we know in part and we prophesy in part." But in the end, he will receive these, while those who were filled with wickedness will find no rest from the worm produced by their evil.”
“An abundance of evil can be revealed in wealth. But this type of evil should be viewed as more of a weakness. Therefore, everyone who guards his wealth for himself does not know the wisdom of God, nor is his heart inclined to insight, nor to instructing his children. He has neither received the words of God's commandments nor has he hidden them in his heart.”
“There are two sorts of names: some names designate those things which by nature have a body; others designate those which by nature are without a body. The names of those with a body designate the characteristics of such a being, such as its size, color and structure.… The names of those without a body reveal a quality of their state of existence, such as their being worthy of praise or condemnation. But if the first class of names is applied in a straightforward manner, such is not the case with the second class. [With the second class] there are two options: the being has the ability of self-determination of either to incline toward virtue and honor in its knowledge of the Creator, which is the case with angels, archangels, thrones and dominions; or to incline toward evil and increase in its ignorance of the Creator, as is the case with Satan and any other world ruler of the present darkness. …Let us not ask, "Why was I placed in this body? Or why was I not made an angel? Does not God show partiality? Do we not have free will?" All these questions simply multiply vanity. How can the creature say to its Creator, "Why did you make me like this?" Or, how can a creature answer back to God? Let all those kinds of discussions cease. Instead, let those discussions prevail which guide us towards virtue and knowledge. All that is present in this age of shadows is called vanity and shadows, and all that belongs to this life will be covered with the darkness, becoming obsolete upon departing this life.”
“If the death by which the righteous die with Christ is praiseworthy because it separates the soul from evil and ignorance, then such a death is the opposite of the birth that unites the soul with evil and ignorance. Therefore, such a death is much more honorable than such a birth.”
“The final end of human beings is a state of blessedness. If the Lord in the Gospel calls those who mourn "blessed"—"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"—then Solomon quite rightly calls mourning the end of every human being, because those who live in that state of mourning are filled with an abundance of spiritual blessings.”
“One acquaints the heart with what one has decided to investigate. The heart in turn longs to know more about these things, which is why it is said, "I turned my heart to know." Those "spheres" are the matters [of inquiry]. The one who directs the heart by meditating on these spheres causes the heart to know them. However, one should note that those spheres that encircle human beings and those that the heart knows are not the same, because we may look into a lot of things, yet only know a very few of them.”
“Given that "all things are in pairs, the one opposite the other," as Jesus the wise man says, receive what I send you according to the letter and according to the spirit, and consider that in every case the letter presupposes the intellect: without this, not even the letter would exist. Thus prayer also involves two ways, active and contemplative. And the same for numbers, which in an immediate way express quantity and in their deeper meaning quality.”
“Do not think you have attained to virtue until first you have fought to the shedding of blood. One must resist sin even to death—manfully and irreproachably, as the divine apostle tells us.”
A richly-documented figure overflows with verbatim words and works; a sparsely-sourced one is handled honestly — what survives in the public domain, plainly shown, nothing padded.