Anthony the Great: Quotes about God

“If we would despise the enemy, our thoughts must always be of God and our souls always glad with hope.”

Book II, Chapter 10
From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony

“I am going the way of my fathers, as the Scripture says, for I see myself called by the Lord. Be you wary and undo not your long service of God, but be earnest to keep your strong purpose, as though you were but now beginning. You know the demons who plot against you, you know how savage they are and how powerless; therefore, fear them not. Let Christ be as the breath you breathe; in Him put your trust. Live as dying daily, heeding yourselves and remembering the counsels you have heard from me. … So do you also be earnest always to be in union first with the Lord and then with the Saints, that after death, they also may receive you into everlasting tabernacles as known friends. Ponder these things, and mean them. … And now God save you, children, for Antony departs and is with you no more.”

Anthony the Great

Book IV, Chapter 20 (his last words), St. Athanasius. Trans. Dom J.B. McLaughlin, O.S.B. St. Antony of the Desert. Rockford: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc, 1995.
From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony

“Hate the world and all that is in it. Hate all peace that comes from the flesh. Renounce this life, so that you may be alive to God.”

Anthony the Great

Saying 33, Page 8
From Apophthegmata Patrum