Best 101 quotes of Saint Basil on MyQuotes

Saint Basil

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    Saint Basil

    All of us who desire the kingdom of God are, by the Lord's decree, under an equal and rigorous necessity of seeking after the grace of Baptism.

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    Saint Basil

    All who call the Holy Ghost a creature we pity, on the ground that, by this utterance, they are falling into the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against Him.

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    Saint Basil

    Among irrational animals the love of the offspring and of the parents for each other is extraordinary because God, who created them, compensated for the deficiency of reason by the superiority of their senses.

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    Saint Basil

    Any one who chooses will set up for a literary critic, though he cannot tell us where he went to school, or how much time was spent in his education, and knows nothing about letters at all.

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    Saint Basil

    As God illumines all people equally with the light of the sun, so do those who desire to imitate God let shine an equal ray of love on all people. For wherever love disappears, hatred immediately appears in its place. And if God is love, then hatred is the devil. Therefore as one who has love has God within himself, so he who has hatred within himself nurtures the devil within himself.

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    Saint Basil

    As the pilot of a vessel is tried in the storm; as the wrestler is tried in the ring, the soldier in the battle, and the hero in adversity: so is the Christian tried in temptation.

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    Saint Basil

    As we were baptized, so we profess our belief. As we profess our belief, so also we offer praise. As then baptism has been given us by the Savior, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, so, in accordance with our baptism, we make the confession of the creed, and our doxology in accordance with our creed.

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    Saint Basil

    A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

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    Saint Basil

    A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder. And any fine distinction as to its being completely formed or unformed is not admissible amongst us.

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    Saint Basil

    Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.

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    Saint Basil

    Do not, as is usually the case, thrust the care of the common weal upon your neighbor; then, as each one in his own thoughts makes light of the matter, all find to their surprise that they have drawn upon themselves by their neglect a personal misfortune.

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    Saint Basil

    Do not despise the fish because they are absolutely unable to speak or to reason, but fear lest you may be even more unreasonable than they by resisting the command of the Creator. Listen to the fish, who through their actions all but utter this word: 'We set out on this long journey for the perpetuation of our species.

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    Saint Basil

    Do not measure your loss by itself; if you do, it will seem intolerable; but if you will take all human affairs into account you will find that some comfort is to be derived from them.

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    Saint Basil

    Do not say, "this happened by chance, while this came to be of itself." In all that exists there is nothing disorderly, nothing indefinite, nothing without purpose, nothing by chance ... How many hairs are on your head? God will not forget one of them. Do you see how nothing, even the smallest thing, escapes the gaze of God?

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    Saint Basil

    Drunkenness, the ruin of reason, the destruction of strength, premature old age, momentary death.

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    Saint Basil

    [Every disappointment or misfortune can become a blessing in disguise, for which we should be grateful. But only if the hidden blessing is anticipated, expected and searched for will it be found and recognised as such and the most made of it. For example...] Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.

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    Saint Basil

    Every divine action begins from the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is completed in the Holy Spirit.

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    Saint Basil

    Every evil is a sickness of soul, but virtue offers the cause of its health.

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    Saint Basil

    Everyone looks for the good, therefore everyone looks for God.

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    Saint Basil

    Extirpate two thoughts within thyself: do not consider thyself worthy of anything great, and do not think that any other man is much lower than thou in worthiness. Learn humble mindedness beforehand, which the Lord commanded in word and showed forth in deed. Hence, do not expect obedience from others, but be ready for obedience thyself.

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    Saint Basil

    First and foremost, the monk should own nothing in this world, but he should have as his possessions solitude of the body, modesty of bearing, a modulated tone of voice, and a well-ordered manner of speech. He should be without anxiety as to his food and drink, and should eat in silence.

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    Saint Basil

    God who created us has granted us the faculty of speech that we might disclose the counsels of our hearts to one another and that, since we possess our human nature in common, each of us might share his thoughts with his neighbor, bringing them forth from the secret recesses of the heart as from a treasury.

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    Saint Basil

    Good masters teach good doctrine, but that taught by evil masters is wholly evil.

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    Saint Basil

    He who confesses magic or sorcery shall do penance for the time of murder, and shall be treated in the same manner as he who convicts himself of this sin.

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    Saint Basil

    He who is guilty of unseemliness with males will be under discipline for the same time as adulterers.

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    Saint Basil

    He who sows courtesy reaps friendship.

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    Saint Basil

    Human life is but of brief duration. 'All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever' (Isa. 40:6, 8). Let us hold fast to the commandment that abides, and despise the unreality that passes away.

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    Saint Basil

    I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness toward all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.

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    Saint Basil

    If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.

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    Saint Basil

    If everyone would take only according to his needs and would leave the surplus to the needy, no one would be rich, no one poor, no one in misery.

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    Saint Basil

    If men are in a state in which they find it hard to be weaned from their own ways and choose rather to serve the pleasures of the flesh than to serve the Lord, and refuse to accept the Gospel life, there is no common ground between me and them.

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    Saint Basil

    If someone has repented once of a sin, and again does the same sin, this is a sign that he has not been cleansed of the causes of the sin, wherefrom, as from a root, the shoots spring forth again.

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    Saint Basil

    If, therefore, there is any grace in the water, it is not from the nature of water but from the Spirit's presence there.

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    Saint Basil

    ... if, to me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21), truly my words ought to be about Christ, my every thought and deed ought to depend upon His commandments, and my soul to be fashioned after His.

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    Saint Basil

    If you begin to guard wealth it will not be yours. But if you begin to distribute it, you will not lose it.

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    Saint Basil

    If you see your neighbor in sin, don't look only at this, but also think about what he has done or does that is good, and infrequently trying this in general, while not partialy judging, you will find that he is better than you.

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    Saint Basil

    I heard many discourses which were good for the soul, but I could not discover in the case of any one of the teachers that his life was worthy of his words.

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    Saint Basil

    Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one's emotions, and of failure to repress the soul's frivolity by a stern use of reason.

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    Saint Basil

    In the very nature of every human being has been sown the seed of the ability to love. You and I ought to welcome this seed, cultivate it carefully, nourish it attentively and foster its growth by going to the school of God's commandments with help of His grace.

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    Saint Basil

    In truth, to know oneself seems to be the hardest of all things. Not only our eye, which observes external objects, does not use the sense of sight upon itself, but even our mind, which contemplates intently another's sin, is slow in the recognition of its own defects.

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    Saint Basil

    I reckon silence more profitable than speech, for? in the words of the Preacher, 'The words of wise men are heard in quiet' (Eccles. 9:17).

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    Saint Basil

    It is impious to say that evil has its origin from God, because naught contrary is produced by the contrary. Life does not generate death, nor is darkness the beginning of light, nor is disease the maker of health, but in the changes of conditions there are transitions from one condition to the contrary.

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    Saint Basil

    It is not he who begins well who is perfect. It is he who ends well who is approved in God's sight.

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    Saint Basil

    It is right to submit to a higher authority whenever a command of God would be violated.

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    Saint Basil

    Just as a very little fresh water is blown away by a storm of wind and dust, in like manner the good deeds, that we think we do in this life, are overwhelmed by the multitude of evils.

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    Saint Basil

    Just as we would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall.

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    Saint Basil

    Let sleep itself be an exercise in piety, for such as our life and conduct have been, so also of necessity will be our dreams.

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    Saint Basil

    Liberated from the error of pagan tradition through the benevolence and loving kindness of the good God with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, I was reared from the very beginning by Christian parents. From them I learned even in babyhood the Holy Scriptures which led me to a knowledge of the truth.

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    Saint Basil

    Lust hath these three companions: the first, blindness of understanding; the second, hardness of heart; the third, want of grace.

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    Saint Basil

    Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.