23 Saint Basil Quotes for You to Enjoy

Saint Basil

Greek Saint

Born: 330

Died: 379

God Good Men Time Will You

Related authors: Francis of Assisi Joan of Arc Mother Teresa Pope John Paul II Saint Augustine Saint Ignatius Saint Teresa of Avila St. Jerome

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. Saint Basil

Love Friendship Wisdom Kindness Good Man Fruit Plants Lost Tree Never He Known Courtesy His Deed Who Deeds Good Deed

Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence. Saint Basil

Remember Power Our Opposite Condition Existence Very Forget Necessary

Men whose sense of taste is destroyed by sickness, sometimes think honey sour. A diseased eye does not see many things which do exist, and notes many things which do not exist. The same thing frequently takes place with regard to the force of words, when the critic is inferior to the writer. Saint Basil

Words Sometimes Sickness Men Same Thing Sense Think Honey Destroyed Critic Eye See Writer Takes Force Frequently Does Sour Exist Inferior Diseased Taste Same Regard Place Which Notes Many Whose Thing Things

By nature, men desire the beautiful. Saint Basil

Beautiful Nature Men Desire

Liberated from the error of pagan tradition through the benevolence and loving kindness of the good God with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, I was reared from the very beginning by Christian parents. From them I learned even in babyhood the Holy Scriptures which led me to a knowledge of the truth. Saint Basil

Truth Kindness God Good Me Knowledge Grace Christ Parents Beginning Christian Our Benevolence Liberated Our Lord Spirit Through Learned Operation Lord Lord Jesus Lord Jesus Christ Tradition Led Error Very Which Loving Scriptures Them Holy Pagan Holy Scriptures Holy Spirit Even Jesus Jesus Christ

God who created us has granted us the faculty of speech that we might disclose the counsels of our hearts to one another and that, since we possess our human nature in common, each of us might share his thoughts with his neighbor, bringing them forth from the secret recesses of the heart as from a treasury. Saint Basil

God Nature Thoughts Heart Disclose Human Nature Secret Our Possess Neighbor Faculty Share Since Another His Hearts Human Common Them Might Forth Us Created Granted Who Each Bringing Treasury Speech

Good masters teach good doctrine, but that taught by evil masters is wholly evil. Saint Basil

Good Evil Doctrine Masters Taught Teach Wholly

Do not despise the fish because they are absolutely unable to speak or to reason, but fear lest you may be even more unreasonable than they by resisting the command of the Creator. Listen to the fish, who through their actions all but utter this word: 'We set out on this long journey for the perpetuation of our species.' Saint Basil

Journey You Speak Fear Word Long Despise Our Unable Out More Unreasonable Long Journey Through Absolutely Because Fish Command Perpetuation Than Listen May Reason Who Actions Lest Even Creator Species Utter Resisting Set

Just as we would have no need of the farmer's labor and toil if we were living amid the delights of paradise, so also we would not require the medical art for relief if we were immune to disease, as was the case, by God's gift, at the time of Creation before the Fall. Saint Basil

Art God Time Gift Paradise Fall Before Creation Living Relief Would Immune Case Delights Also Were Labor Disease Just Require Toil Farmer Medical Need

Strive to attain to the greater virtues, but do not neglect the lesser ones. Do not make light of a fall even if it be the most venial of faults; rather, be quick to repair it by repentance, although many others may commit a large number of faults, slight and grievous, and remain unrepentant. Saint Basil

Light Fall Repentance Others Neglect Virtues Slight Faults Strive Rather Remain Attain Most Make Although Greater Repair Quick Commit May Grievous Lesser Large Many Even Large Number Number

Now, if you notice how the swan, putting its neck down into the deep water, brings up food for itself from below, then you will discover the wisdom of the Creator, in that He gave it a neck longer than its feet for this reason, that it might, as if lowering a sort of fishing line, procure the food hidden in the deep water. Saint Basil

Wisdom Food You Water Will Down Gave Hidden He Putting Longer Feet Sort How Line Discover Fishing Up Itself Than Swan Might Procure Then Notice Lowering Reason Deep Creator Now Brings Neck Below

It is impious to say that evil has its origin from God, because naught contrary is produced by the contrary. Life does not generate death, nor is darkness the beginning of light, nor is disease the maker of health, but in the changes of conditions there are transitions from one condition to the contrary. Saint Basil

Life Death God Health Darkness Light Evil Beginning Changes Say Generate Because Maker Does Nor Condition Conditions Contrary Disease Transitions Produced Naught Origin

We men are easily prone to sins of thought. Therefore, He who has formed each heart individually, knowing that the impulse received from the intention constitutes the major element in sin, has ordained that purity in the ruling part of our soul be our primary concern. Saint Basil

Soul Heart Thought Men Our Ruling Easily Prone Purity He Part Individually Primary Sin Major Knowing Concern Sins Impulse Intention Ordained Formed Who Therefore Each Element Received

In truth, to know oneself seems to be the hardest of all things. Not only our eye, which observes external objects, does not use the sense of sight upon itself, but even our mind, which contemplates intently another's sin, is slow in the recognition of its own defects. Saint Basil

Truth Mind Slow Own Sense Our Sight Recognition Eye All Things Oneself Seems Objects Only Sin Know Another Does Itself Which Use Even Hardest Things Defects External

If men are in a state in which they find it hard to be weaned from their own ways and choose rather to serve the pleasures of the flesh than to serve the Lord, and refuse to accept the Gospel life, there is no common ground between me and them. Saint Basil

Life Me Men Own State Pleasures Ways Find Rather Between Accept Gospel Lord Than Common Refuse Common Ground Which Them Flesh Hard Choose Ground Serve

Whatever requires an undue amount of thought or trouble or involves a large expenditure of effort and causes our whole life to revolve, as it were, around solicitude for the flesh must be avoided by Christians. Saint Basil

Any one who chooses will set up for a literary critic, though he cannot tell us where he went to school, or how much time was spent in his education, and knows nothing about letters at all. Saint Basil

Education Time School Will Nothing Spent Though Critic Tell About He Knows How How Much How Much Time His Up Any Where Literary Cannot Us Much Chooses Who Letters Set

Among irrational animals the love of the offspring and of the parents for each other is extraordinary because God, who created them, compensated for the deficiency of reason by the superiority of their senses. Saint Basil

Love God Parents Animals Other Extraordinary Deficiency Superiority Because Irrational Offspring Senses Them Created Reason Who Each Among

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