truisms

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 8:58 am

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Benjamin Disraeli

As St. Maximos has said, "To think that one knows prevents one from advancing in knowledge." St. John Chrysostom points out that there is an ignorance which is praiseworthy: it consists in knowing consciously that one knows nothing. In addition, there is a form of ignorance that is worse than any other: not to know that one does not know. Similarly, there is a knowledge that is falsely so called, which occurs when, as St. Paul says, one thinks that one knows but does not know (see I Corinthians 8:2).

St. Peter of Damaskos,"The Four Virtues of the Soul", from G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Bishop Kallistos Ware, "The Philokalia: Vol. III," (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), pp. 100 - 101

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 8:58 am

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.

Benjamin Disraeli

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 8:59 am

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

Benjamin Disraeli

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 9:00 am

What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens.

Benjamin Disraeli

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 9:01 am

Knowing this, the Lord enjoins us 'not to be anxious about the morrow' (Mt 6:34); and rightly so. For if a man has not freed himself from material things and from concern about them, how can he be freed from evil thoughts? And if he is beset by evil thoughts, how can he see the reality of the sin concealed behind them? This sin wraps the soul in darkness and obscurity, and increases its hold upon us through our evil thoughts and actions. The devil initiates the whole process by testing a man with a provocation which he is not compelled to accept; but the man, urged on by self-indulgence and self-esteem, begins to entertain this provocation with enjoyment. Even if his discrimination tells him to reject it, yet in practice he takes pleasure in it and accepts it. If someone has not perceived this general process of sinning, when will he pray about it and be cleansed from it? And if he has not been cleansed, how will he find purity of nature? And if he has not found this, how will he behold the inner dwelling-place of Christ? For we are a dwelling place of God, according to the words of Prophet, Gospel and Apostle

Saint Kosmas Aitolos :+1779
(cf. Zc 2:10; Jn 14:23; 1Co 3:16; Hb 3:6).

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 9:02 am

Without tact you can learn nothing.

Benjamin Disraeli

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

Abraham Lincoln

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 20 December 2006 9:03 am

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle, Old Age a regret.

Benjamin Disraeli