Joshua Finch > Joshua's Quotes

“The sword of truth is above you, beneath you is hell ready to slay you; before you is death, behind you is a multitude of your sins, to the right and left of you is a crowd of vicious enemies. Can you possibly be indolent?”
― St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

“[A]s the Fathers tell us, the souls of the dead remember everything that happened here -thoughts, words, desires- and nothing can be forgotten. But, as it says in the Psalm, 'In that day all their schemes shall be brought to nothing.' The schemes he speaks of are those of this world, about houses and possessions, parents and children, and business transactions. All these things are destroyed immediately when the soul passes out of the body, none of all this is remembered or considered. But what he did against virtue or against his evil passions, he remembers, and nothing of this is lost. And if a man helped somone or was helped by someone else, this is remembered as is the persons concerned, or if he injured someone, or was injured by someone, all this is remembered. In fact, the soul loses nothing that it did in this world but remembers everything at its exit from this body more clearly and distinctly once freed from the earthliness of the body.”
― St. Dorotheos

“What pleasure in this life remains unmarked by sorrow? What glory can endure upon this earth unchanged? All is feebler than a shadow, more deceptive than a dream; for death in a single moment takes all things away. But in the light of Thy countenance, O Christ, and in the joy of Thy beauty, give rest to those whom Thou hast chosen, for Thou lovest mankind...”
― St John Damascus

“The bottom line is that if you are in hell, the only way out is to go through a period of sustained misery. Misery is, of course, much better than hell, but it is painful nonetheless. By refusing to accept the misery that it takes to climb out of hell, you end up falling back into hell repeatedly, only to have to start over and over again.”
― Marsha M. Linehan, DBT Skills Training: Manual

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
― Flannery O'Connor