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Strength is never shown except in adversity, and so patience is immediately made to succeed to strength. Every person proves himself in a much truer sense to have advanced in strength in proportion as he bears with the bolder heart the wrongs of other persons. Gregory The Great (540)

Marvel at your Lord not only because He has made heaven and the sun, but also because He has made the ant... Consider how prudent the ant is, and consider how God has implanted in so small a body such an increasing desire for work. Psalm 130.I (999 B.C.E.)

A soul also desires many kisses of the Word, so that she may be enlightened with the light of the knowledge of God. For this is the kiss of the Word, I mean the light of holy knowledge. Ambrose (333)

In yourself lies the sweetness of your charm, from you does it blossom, in you it sojourns, within you it rests, in your own self you must search for the jubilant quality of your conscience. For that reason Solomon says, "Drink water out of your own cistern and the streams out of your own well." Ambrose (333)

Drink from your own cistern, and make use of your own resources. You are not merely watering the earth but enlightening human souls. Cyril Of Jerusalem (315)

To know goodness is not sufficient to reach blessedness; if one does not put goodness into practice with works. Piety towards God is actually the beginning of knowledge. Didymus The Blind (313)

It is right for us to be exhorted so to love wisdom that we most eargerly seek it as our treasure, acquire more and more of it, suffer many trials, restrain desires, ponder the future, so that we may preserve innocence and beneficence. Whenever we act in this way we are in possession of true virtues, because our objective is true that is in harmony with our nature in reference to salvation and true happiness. St. Augustine Of Hippo (354)

You who love instruction and are eager to listen, receive once again the sacred words: delight yourselves in the honey of wisdom for it is written: "Good words are honey-combs and their sweetness is the healing of the soul." Cyril Of Alexandria (375)

Wisdom examines the levels of advice, aware of the usefulness of the usefulness of varied methods of persuasion. Clement Of Alexandria (159)

There is only one way of truth, but different paths from different places join it, just like tributaries flowing into a perennial river. Solomon adds that there are plenty of righteous people and plenty of routes for them. He explains this as follows: "The paths of the righteous shine like light." Clement Of Alexandria (159)

Solomon knew there were in us two kinds of senses, the one being mortal, corruptible and human, and the other immortal and intellectual, which he calls "divine." By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes but of a pure heart, that is, the mind, God can be seen by those who are worthy. Origen (185)

God's wisdom works in many forms and in many ways through technical skill, scientific knowledge, faith, prophecy; it shows us its power to our benefit, because "all wisdom comes from the Lord and it with him to all eternity" as the wisdom of Jesus puts it. Jesus Ben Sirach (175 B.C.E.)

He will serve in the midst of the greats and be seen in the presence of leaders; he will travel in the lands of foreign peoples for he has tested the good things and the bad among human beings. Jesus Ben Sirach (175 B.C.E.)

Human mercy is on one's neighbor, but the mercy of the Lord is for all flesh... reproving, disciplining and teaching, and bringing it back as a shepherd does the flock. Jesus Ben Sirach (175 B.C.E.)

For God grants wisdom from His mouth together with perception and practical wisdom, and stores up help for the righteous. Odes Of Solomon (390)

Consider, O discerning man, that you are the image of God and the bond of all creation, both of the heavenly and the terrestrial beings, and whenever you bend your head to worship and glorify God, all the creations, both heavenly and terrestrial, bow their heads with you and in you, to worship God. And whenever you do not worship and glorify Him, all the creations grieve over you and turn against you, and you will fall from grace. Simon Of Taibutheth (670)

Every day in many ways, day after day, we walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men , young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-law. But always meeting ourselves. James Joyce (1882)

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881)

To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday. John Burroughs (1837)

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice that which we are for what we could become. Charles Dubois (1804)

And watch two men washing clothes, one makes dry clothes wet. The other makes wet clothes dry. They seem to be thwarting each other, but their work is a perfect harmony. Every holy person seems to have a different doctrine and practice, but there's really only one work. Jalal Al Din Rumi (1207)

Whoever sees all beings in the soul and the soul in all beings...
What delusion or sorrow is there for one who sees unity?
It has filled all. It is radiant, incorporeal, invulnerable...
Wise, intelligent, encompassing, self-existent,
It organizes objects throughout eternity.
Upanishads (800 B.C.E.)

That thou art. Upanishads (800 B.C.E.)

He who knows the Bliss of Brahman does not distress himself with the thought, "Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is evil?" Whoever knows this (bliss) regards both of these as Atman (self, soul), indeed he cherishes both as Atman. Upanishads (800 B.C.E.)

This is a country whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. You do not find it by travelling but by standing still. Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity. Thomas Merton (1915)