Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Love restores the soul to health." 'A Discourse on Abba Philimon'

2		"The disposition which makes us capable of receiving divine blessings depends on ourselves." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Third Century of Various Texts'

3		"The principle of that wisdom which is revealed to all [is] that we should know and praise God through His creation and that by means of the visible world we should understand whence we came, what we are, for what purpose we were made and where we are going." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'

4		"Our spiritual lamp is lit by pure prayer and perfect love." St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic, 'A Century of Spiritual Texts'

5		"If we are made, as we are, in the image of God (cf. Genesis 1:27), let us become the image both of ourselves and of God…let us all become the image of the one whole God." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'First Century of Various Texts'

6		"It is God's purpose to endow created things through grace with a knowledge both of their own essential being and of that of other things; for He will reveal to them the inner principles of their creation, pre-existent in a unified manner within Himself." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Fourth Century of Various Texts'

7		"Love…will remain for all eternity, always increasing beyond all measure." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'First Century on Love'

8		"God is…a unity embracing a diversity of principles, each of which is an aspect of the Logos. Thus he who speaks about the truth…speaks always about the one." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'

9		"Indeed, the Saviour endured His sufferings so that 'He should gather together into one the scattered children of God' (John 11:52)." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Fourth Century on Love'

10		"A good conscience confers on us the power of love." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Third Century of Various Texts'

11		"Think good thoughts about what is good by nature, and think well of every man." St. Thalassios the Libyan, 'Third Century'

12		"God is one…possessing completely the total potentiality of being." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'First Century on Theology'

13		"Intellect (nous): the highest faculty in man, through which – provided he is purified – he knows God or the inner essences or principles of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception….it understands divine truth by means of immediate experience, intuition, or simple cognition. The intellect dwells in the depths of the soul; it constitutes the innermost aspect of the heart."

14		"God Himself is the way, the door, the key and the kingdom….He enters by participation into all things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'

15		"Truly blessed is the man who seeks virtue and pursues it and inquires diligently into its nature, since it is through virtue that he approaches God and enters into spiritual communion with Him." St. John of Damaskos, 'On the Virtues and the Vices'

16		"Love alone harmoniously joins all created things with God and with each other." St. Thalassios the Libyan, 'On Love, Self-control and Life in accordance with the Intellect'

17		"The apostle gives us the following definition of faith: 'Faith makes real for us things hoped for, gives assurance of things not seen' (Hebrews 11:1). One may also justly define it as an engrained blessing." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century of Various Texts'

18		"All things seek the beautiful and good at every opportunity, and there is no being which does not participate in them. They extend to all that is." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Fifth Century of Various Texts'

19		"St. John says: 'My children, let us love not in word or tongue, but in action and truth. And by this we know that we belong to the truth.' (1 John 3:18-19)" St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic, 'A Century of Spiritual Texts'

20		"Love is the most comprehensive and the highest of all the divine blessings spoken of in the Holy Scriptures." St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic, 'A Century of Spiritual Texts'

21		"The principles or inner essences of all things are embraced by the Logos." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Second Century on Theology'

22		"God embraces in unity the spiritual knowledge of all created things, providentially permeating all things with His power, and vivifying their inner essences in accordance with their nature." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'First Century of Various Texts'

23		"When you have come to know yourself, you will understand many great and wonderful things." St. Maximos the Confessor, 'Third Century on Love'

24		"Every man possesses that which is according to the image of God, 'for the gifts of God are irrevocable' (cf. Romans 11:29)." St. John of Damaskos, 'On the Virtues and the Vices'

25		"As the unitary cosmic principle, the Logos contains in Himself the multiple logoi (inner principles or inner essences, thoughts of God) in accordance with which all things come into existence at the times and places, and in the forms, appointed for them, each single thing thereby containing in itself the principle of its own development."