The Philokalia (φιλοκαλία "love of the good" from φιλία "love" and κάλλος "beauty") is a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox Church hesychast tradition. The collection was compiled in the 18th century by Nicodemus the Hagiorite and Macarius of Corinth.

Quotes

as translated and edited by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware (1979)

Evagrios the Solitary

  • Do not desire wealth for giving to the poor.
    • Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life, vol. 1, p. 32
  • Just as it is possible to think of water both while thirsty and while not thirsty, so it is possible to think of gold with greed and without greed. The same applies to other things.
    • On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 40
  • In the whole range of evil thoughts, none is richer in resources than self-esteem.
    • On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 46
  • The demon of avarice, it seems to me, is extraordinarily complex and is baffling in his deceits. Often, when frustrated by the strictness of our renunciation, he immediately pretends to be a steward and a lover of the poor; he urges us to prepare a welcome for strangers who have not yet arrived or to send provisions for absent brethren. He makes us mentally visit prisons in the city and ransom those on sale as slaves. He suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women, and advises us to be obsequious to others who have a full purse. And so, after deceiving the soul, little by little he engulfs it in avaricious thoughts and then hands it over to the demon of self-esteem.
    • On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 51
  • When you are praying, do not shape within yourself any image of the deity.
    • On Prayer, vol. 1, p. 63
  • You should be aware of this trick: at times the demons split into two groups; and when you call for help against one group, the other will come in the guise of angels.
    • On Prayer, vol. 1, p. 66

Saint Peter of Damaskos

  • By our free choice we abandon our own wishes and thoughts and do what God wishes and thinks. If we succeed in doing this, there is no object, no activity or place in the whole of creation that can prevent us from becoming what God from the beginning has wished for us to be: that is to say, according to His image and likeness, gods by adoption through grace, dispassionate, just, good and wise.
    • A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, vol. 3, p. 76
  • Woe is me, unhappy that I am! What shall I do? I have sinned greatly; many blessings are bestowed upon me; I am very weak. Many are the temptations: sloth overwhelms me, forgetfulness benights me and will not let me see myself and my many crimes. Ignorance is evil; conscious transgression is worse; virtue is difficult to achieve; the passions are many; the demons are crafty and subtle; sin is easy; death is near; the reckoning is bitter. Alas, what shall I do? Where shall I flee from myself? For I am the cause of my own destruction.
    • A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, vol. 3, p. 112
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