Quotes from St. Basil

Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.

We must always be on guard lest, under the pretext of keeping one commandment, we be found breaking another.

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

What is the benefit of fasting in our body while filling our souls with innumerable evils? He who does not play at dice, but spends his leisure otherwise, what nonsense does he not utter? What absurdities does he not listen to? Leisure without the fear of God is, for those who do not know how to use time, the teacher of wickedness.

Drunkenness, the ruin of reason, the destruction of strength, premature old age, momentary death.

We should not think that we achieve success in preaching through our own devices, but we should rely entirely on God.

Let sleep itself be an exercise in piety, for such as our life and conduct have been, so also of necessity will be our dreams.

I heard many discourses which were good for the soul, but I could not discover in the case of any one of the teachers that his life was worthy of his words.

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.

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.

There is still time for endurance, time for patience, time for healing, time for change. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Cease. Do not stand among sinners, but leap aside.

He who confesses magic or sorcery shall do penance for the time of murder, and shall be treated in the same manner as he who convicts himself of this sin.