Saint Basil the Great

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

“Drunkenness is a voluntary madness.”

“As the pilot of a vessel is tried in the storm... so is the Christian tried in temptation.”

“To God, the yawning of a devout heart is a prayer.”

“There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others.”

“What is the mark of a Christian? That he be purified of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit in the fear of God and the love of Christ, and that he love his neighbor as himself.”

“A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.”

“It is a great sign of mediocrity to be unable to praise a man with moderation.”

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; and the money which you bury in the earth is the redemption and freedom of the penniless.”

“Envy is the most unjust of all passions. It is excited by the good of others.”

“He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.”

“A man's speech is the likeness of his life.”

“The study of letters is the way to the living God.”

“A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds.”

“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.”

“Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise.”