Sayings of Saint Maximos the Confessor:
If you totally fulfill the command to love your neighbour, you will feel no bitterness or resentment against him whatever he does. If this is not the case, then the reason why you fight against your brother is clearly because you seek after transitory things and prefer them to the commandment of love.
Second Century on Love no. 15, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 85
Among the demons... evil takes the form of mindless anger, desire uncontrolled by the intellect, and impetuous imagination. But mindlessness, lack of intellectual control and impetuosity in intelligent beings are privations of intelligence, intellect and circumspection. But a privation is posterior to the possession of something. There was a time, then, when the demons possessed intelligence, intellect and devout circumspection. This being the case, not even the demons are evil by nature, but they have become evil through the misuse of their natural power.
Third Century on Love no. 5, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pgs. 83-84
It is not food that is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children but unchastity, not material things but avarice, not esteem but self-esteem. This being so, it is only the misuse of things that is evil, and such misuse occurs when the intellect fails to cultivate its natural powers.
Third Century on Love no. 4, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 83
Second Century on Love no. 15, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 85
+ + +
Among the demons... evil takes the form of mindless anger, desire uncontrolled by the intellect, and impetuous imagination. But mindlessness, lack of intellectual control and impetuosity in intelligent beings are privations of intelligence, intellect and circumspection. But a privation is posterior to the possession of something. There was a time, then, when the demons possessed intelligence, intellect and devout circumspection. This being the case, not even the demons are evil by nature, but they have become evil through the misuse of their natural power.
Third Century on Love no. 5, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pgs. 83-84
+ + +
It is not food that is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children but unchastity, not material things but avarice, not esteem but self-esteem. This being so, it is only the misuse of things that is evil, and such misuse occurs when the intellect fails to cultivate its natural powers.
Third Century on Love no. 4, The Philokalia Vol. 2 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 83
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