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Evagrius Ponticus Quotes

Evagrius Ponticus , also called Evagrius the Solitary , was a Christian monk and ascetic. One of the most influential theologians in the late fourth-century church, he was well known as a thinker, polished speaker, and gifted writer. He left a promising ecclesiastical career in Constantinople and traveled to Jerusalem, where in 383 he became a monk at the monastery of Rufinus and Melania the Elder. He then went to Egypt and spent the remaining years of his life in Nitria and Kellia, marked by years of asceticism and writing. He was a disciple of several influential contemporary church leaders, including Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Macarius of Egypt. He was a teacher of others, including John Cassian and Palladius. Wikipedia  

✵ 345 – 399
Evagrius Ponticus photo
Evagrius Ponticus: 24 quotes4 likes

Famous Evagrius Ponticus Quotes

“120. Happy is the spirit that attains to complete unconsciousness of all sensible experience at the time of prayer.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“35. Prayer is an ascent of the spirit to God.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“125. A monk is a man who considers himself one with all men because he seems constantly to see himself in every man.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“150. Just as sight is the most worthy of the sense, so also is prayer the most divine of the virtues.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

Evagrius Ponticus Quotes about happiness

“119. Happy is the spirit that becomes free of all matter and is stripped of all at the time of prayer.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“117. Let me repeat this saying of mine that I once expressed on some other occasions: Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“118. Happy is the spirit which, praying with distraction, goes on increasing its desire for God.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“123. Happy is the monk who considers all men as god — after God.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“121. Happy is the man who thinks himself no better than dirt.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“122. Happy is the monk who views the welfare and progress of all men with as much joy as if it were his own.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

Evagrius Ponticus Quotes

“153. When you give yourself to prayer, rise above every other joy — then you will find true prayer.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“70. You will not be able to pray purely if you are all involved with material affairs and agitated with unremitting concerns. For prayer is the rejection of conceptions.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“81. Agape is the progeny of apatheia. Apatheia is the very flower of ascesis. Ascesis consists in keeping the commandments. The custodian of those commandments is the fear of God which is in turn the offspring of true faith. Now faith is an interior an interior good, one which is to be found even in those who do not yet believe in God.”

Evagrius Ponticus

The Praktikos

“52. To separate the body from the soul is the privilege of only of the One who has joined them together. But to separate the soul from the body lies as well in the power of the man who pursues virtue. For our Fathers gave to the meditation of death and to the flight from the body a spiritual name: anachoresis”

Evagrius Ponticus

withdrawal
The Praktikos

“97. One of the brethren owned only a book of the Gospels. He sold this and gave the money for the support of the poor. He made a statement that deserves remembrance: "I have sold the very word that speaks to me saying: 'Sell your possessions and give to the poor.'"”

Evagrius Ponticus

The Praktikos

“64. The proof of apatheia is had when the spirit begins to see its own light, when it remains in a state of tranquility in the presence of the images it has during sleep and when it maintains its calm as it beholds the affairs of life.”

Evagrius Ponticus

The Praktikos

“37. First of all pray to be purified from your passions. Secondly, pray to be delivered from ignorance. Thirdly, pray to be freed from all temptation and abandonment.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Chapters on Prayer

“The demon of avarice, it seems to me, is extraordinarily complex and is baffling in his deceits. Often, when frustrated by the strictness of our renunciation, he immediately pretends to be a steward and a lover of the poor; he urges us to prepare a welcome for strangers who have not yet arrived or to send provisions for absent brethren. He makes us mentally visit prisons in the city and ransom those on sale as slaves. He suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women, and advises us to be obsequious to others who have a full purse. And so, after deceiving the soul, little by little he engulfs it in avaricious thoughts and then hands it over to the demon of self-esteem.”

Evagrius Ponticus

On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 51
The Philokalia

“In the whole range of evil thoughts, none is richer in resources than self-esteem.”

Evagrius Ponticus

On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 46
The Philokalia

“Just as it is possible to think of water both while thirsty and while not thirsty, so it is possible to think of gold with greed and without greed. The same applies to other things.”

Evagrius Ponticus

On Discrimination, vol. 1, p. 40
The Philokalia

“Do not desire wealth for giving to the poor.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life, vol. 1, p. 32
The Philokalia

“There was a time when evilness did not exist, and there will be a time when it will no more exist, whereas there was no time when virtue did not exist, and there will be no time when it will not exist. For the germs of virtue are impossible to destroy.”

Evagrius Ponticus

Kephalaia Gnostika 1.40

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