“Three things take the slave to God's pleasure:”
1) Increase in seeking forgiveness
2) Gentleness
3) Increased charity giving
Misnad al-Imām al-Jawād, p. 247
Religious Wisdom
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Muhammad al-Taqi 25
ninth of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'ism 811–835Related quotes

“The Gods most pleasure in od numbers take.”
The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Bucolicks

“It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.”

The First Revelation, Chapter 5
Context: In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it. But what is to me verily the Maker, the Keeper, and the Lover, — I cannot tell; for till I am Substantially oned to Him, I may never have full rest nor very bliss: that is to say, till I be so fastened to Him, that there is right nought that is made betwixt my God and me.

My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)

“Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure when he is really selling himself a slave to it.”

“God's servant is something; God's slave is greater.”
Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Bhakti

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.