More John Climacus quotes

To repent is not to look downwards at my own shortcomings, but upwards at God's love, it is not to look backwards with self-reproach but forward with trustfulness, it is to see not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I might yet become. View quote
John Climacus
Pride is the extreme poverty of the soul that thinks itself to be rich and mistakes darkness for light. View quote
John Climacus
Forgetting offences is a sign of sincere repentance. If you keep the memory of them, you may believe you have repented but you are like someone running in his sleep. Let no one consider it a minor defect, this darkness that often clouds the eyes even of spiritual people. View quote
John Climacus
You wish, or rather, have decided, to remove a splinter from someone? Very well, but do not go after it with a stick instead of a lancet for you will only drive it deeper. Rough speech and harsh gestures are the stick, while even-tempered instruction and patient reprimand are the lancet. 'Reprove, rebuke, exhort,' says the Apostle (II Tim. 4:2), not 'batter'. View quote
John Climacus
I know a man who, when he saw a woman of striking beauty, praised the Creator for her. The sight of her lit within him the love of God. View quote
John Climacus