Florentius > Florentius's Quotes

“Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men...For cannot he that falls rise again?”
― Ignatius of Antioch

“It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin.”
― Thomas Aquinas, Disputed Questions Virtues

“Without the family, we are helpless before the State.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce

“I will willingly abandon this miserable body to hunger and suffering, provided that my soul may have its ordinary nourishment.”
― Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

“When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more noble her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living

“Conscience, Christ, and the gift of faith make evil men uneasy in their sin. They feel that if they could drive Christ from the earth, they would be free from "moral inhibitions." They forget that it is their own nature and conscience which makes them feel that way. Being unable to drive God from the heavens, they would drive his ambassadors from the earth. In a lesser sphere, that is why many men sneer at virtue--because it makes vice uncomfortable.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ

“Constantine saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing this inscription: conquer by this. At the sight, he himself was struck with amazement and his whole army also.”
― Eusebius, The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine: From 306 to AD 337

“It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.”
― Saint Cyprian of Carthage, The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage

“No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”
― Saint Cyprian of Carthage, The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage

“Idleness is the enemy of the soul; and therefore the brethren ought to be employed in manual labor at certain times, at others, in devout reading.”
― Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of Saint Benedict

“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.”
― Oscar A. Romero, The Violence Of Love

“There is no such thing as ‘my truth’ or ‘your truth’,” he said. “There is only one truth. You’ll live to find that out.”
― Luise Rinser, Leave If You Can

“To insure the stability of imperial power, it is sufficient for an emperor to serve God with reverence.”
― Hermais Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen: From AD 324 to AD 425

“[S]ome sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other.”
― Pope Gregory I, The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great

“If before the severe judge idle speech is reprehended, how much more that which is hurtful. Consider, then, how damnable those words be, which proceed of malice, when that talk shall be punished which proceedeth only from idleness.”
― Pope Gregory I, The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great

“A good purpose, which has known God, cannot be changed.”
― Cyprian, The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage

“Whether well or not, I do not know. But know that you have cut off your right hand with your left. [A Roman Senator to Valentinian III after the latter had murdered the general Aetius.]”
― Priscus, The Fragmentary History of Priscus: Attila, the Huns and the Roman Empire, AD 430-476

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Joan of Arc was not stuck at the cross-roads, either by rejecting all the paths like Tolstoy or by accepting them all like Nietzsche. She chose a path, and went down it like a thunderbolt.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“How can we say that the Church wishes to bring us back into the Dark Ages? The Church was the only thing that ever brought us out of them.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“Oscar Wilde said that sunsets were not valued because we could not pay for sunsets. But Oscar Wilde was wrong; we can pay for sunsets. We can pay for them by not being Oscar Wilde.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“When the spirit of innovation becomes regarded with popular favor, it is scarcely possible to arrest its progress. Inflated as it always is with arrogance, it contemns the institutions of the Fathers, and enacts laws of its own. It even despises the theological doctrines of antiquity, and seeks out zealously a new form of religion of its own devising.”
― Hermias Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen: From AD 324 to AD 425

“Belisarius had developed a new-style tactical instrument with which he knew that he might count on beating much superior numbers, provided that he could induce his opponents to attack him under conditions that suited his tactics. For that purpose his lack of numbers, when not too marked, was an asset, especially when coupled with an audaciously direct strategic offensive. His strategy was thus more psychological than logistical. He knew how to provoke the barbarian armies of the West into indulging their natural instinct for direct assault; with the more subtle and skillful Persians he was able at first to take advantage of their feeling of superiority to the Byzantines, and later, when they learnt respect for him, he exploited their wariness as a means of outmanoeuvring them psychologically.

He was a master of the art of converting his weakness into strength; and the opponent's strength into a weakness. His tactics, too, had the essential characteristic of the indirect approach-that of getting the opponent off balance, so that a joint becomes exposed and can be dislocated.”
― Basil Henry Liddell Hart, Strategy

“The first blessing is peace, as is agreed by all men who have even a small share of reason....The best general, therefore, is that one which is able to bring about peace from war.”
― Belisarius

“I come before you not as a politician or as a bureaucrat, but as a soldier and servant of Justinian Augustus, most happy and victorious Emperor of the Romans. I hereby pledge my life to your safety. If during the coming storm you suffer, know that I will suffer before you. If you are injured, know that the enemy will have to knock me down to get at you. If you are in peril of death, know that I will share that peril every day until the peril is gone. As Stilicho and Aetius, I do not fear my own destruction, but will put everything I have on the line to protect Rome from our enemies.”
― Paolo Belzoni, Belisarius Book III: Rome the Eternal

“I arrived in Constantinople not a week ago with great joy in my heart because I was to meet the most pious prince, Justinian Augustus, defender of orthodoxy and of the Roman Empire. But yea, where I sought the most Christian Emperor, I have found, instead, Diocletian.”
― Paolo Belzoni, Belisarius Book III: Rome the Eternal

“Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“Education does not deliver us always from evil. Education could conceivably make clever devils instead of stupid ones. If we had to choose between the two, we would prefer the stupid devils.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living