Posts
 |
| Source: legacyicons.com |
He who has lost sensibility is … a self-contradictory windbag, a blind man who teaches others to see. He talks about healing a wound, and does not stop irritating it. He complains of sickness, and does not stop eating what is harmful. … He philosophizes about death, but he behaves as if he were immortal. … He talks of temperance and self-control, but he lives for gluttony. … He reads about vainglory, and is vainglorious while actually reading it. He repeats what he has learnt about vigil, and drops asleep on the spot. He praises prayer, but runs from it as from the plague. He blesses obedience, but he is the first to disobey. He praises detachment, but he is not ashamed to be spiteful and to fight for a rag. When angered, he gets bitter. … He looks people in the face with passion, and talks about chastity. … All the time he is his own accuser, and he does not want to come to his senses–I will not say cannot.
—St. John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, as found in The Bible and the Holy Fathers for Orthodox
