The Philokalia

by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Without anger a man cannot attain purity: he has to feel angry with all that is sown in him by the enemy. When Job felt this anger he reviled his enemies, calling them 'dishonourable men of no repute, lacking everything good, whom I would not consider fit to live with the dogs that guard my flocks' (cf Job 30:1, 4. LXX). He who wishes to acquire the anger that is in accordance with nature must uproot all self-will, until he establishes within himself the state natural to the intellect.

25. The first virtue is detachment, that is, death in relation to every person or thing.

Prayer is the energy which accords with the dignity of the intellect; it is the intellect's true and highest activity.