John Climacus quotes

Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness. View quote
John Climacus
Forgetting offences is a sign of sincere repentance. If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep. Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people. View quote
John Climacus
You wish, or rather, have decided, to remove a splinter from someone? Very well, but do not go after it with a stick instead of a lancet for you will only drive it deeper. Rough speech and harsh gestures are the stick, while even-tempered instruction and patient reprimand are the lancet. 'Reprove, rebuke, exhort,' says the Apostle (II Tim. 4:2), not 'batter'. View quote
John Climacus
Whoever has become a servant of the Lord fears only his Master. But whoever is without the fear of God is often afraid of his own shadow. Fearfulness is the daughter of unbelief. A proud soul is the slave of fear; hoping in itself, in comes to such a state that it is startled by a small noise, and is afraid of the dark. View quote
John Climacus
When people begin to praise us, let us hurry to remember the multitude of ours transgressions, and we will see that we are truly unworthy of that which they say and do in our honor. View quote
John Climacus
A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself. View quote
John Climacus
The friend of silence comes close to God. View quote
John Climacus
Repentance lifts a man up. Mourning knocks at heaven's gate. Holy humility opens it. View quote
John Climacus
To repent is not to look downwards at my own shortcomings, but upwards at God's love, it is not to look backwards with self-reproach but forward with trustfulness, it is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I might yet become. View quote
John Climacus
Obedience is the burial of the will and the resurrection of humility. View quote
John Climacus
I know a man who, when he saw a woman of striking beauty, praised the Creator for her. The sight of her lit within him the love of God. (John Climacus)
Do not stop praying as long as, by God's grace, the fire and the water have not been exhausted, for it may happen that never again in your whole life will you have such a chance to ask for the forgiveness for your sins. View quote
John Climacus
He does not show humility who accuses himself (for who will not accept rebukes from himself?), but he who, being rebuked by another, does not decrease his love toward him. View quote
John Climacus
An angel fell from Heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to Heaven by humility alone, without any other of the virtues. View quote
John Climacus
It happens, I do not know how, that most of the proud never really discover their true selves. They think they have conquered their passions and they find out how poor they really are only after they die. View quote
John Climacus
Our inhuman enemy inspires the thought that God loves mankind, and that He quickly forgives this sin. But when we observe the guile of demons, then we see that after the commission of the sin, they suggest to us that God is a righteous and implacable Judge. The first they say in order to lead us to sin, the second, in order to weigh us down in despair. View quote
John Climacus
The friend of silence comes close to God. In secret he converses with him and receives his light. View quote
John Climacus
Everyone who asks something of God and does not receive it doubtless does not receive it for one of these reasons: either because they ask before the time, or they ask unworthily, or out of vainglory, or because if they received what they asked they would become proud or fall into negligence. View quote
John Climacus
Confession is like a bridle that keeps the soul which reflects on it from committing sin, but anything left unconfessed we continue to do without fear as if in the dark. View quote
John Climacus
Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honour your patience. View quote
John Climacus
Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. Let your hearts' resolve be to climb. Listen to the voice of the one who says: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God' (Isa. 2:3), Who makes our feet to be like the feet of the deer, 'Who sets us on the high places, that we may be triumphant on His road' (Hab. 3:19). (John Climacus)
Even though one is well advanced in virtue, should he stop mortifying himself, he soon would lose his modesty and virtue - just as fertile soul quickly becomes dry and arid and produces nothing but thorns and thistles if it is not cultivated. View quote
John Climacus
The offspring of virtue is perseverance. The fruit and offspring of perseverance is habit and child of habit is character. View quote
John Climacus
Humility is the only virtue that no devil can imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there is no doubt that humility could make angels out of demons. View quote
John Climacus
A servant of the Lord stands bodily before men, but mentally he is knocking at the gates of heaven with prayer. View quote
John Climacus