Father Sergius Quotes

“He wanted and needed their love, but felt none towards them. He now had neither love nor humility nor purity”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“So that is what my dream meant! Pashenka is what I ought to
have been but failed to be. I lived for men on the pretext of
living for God, while she lived for God imagining that she lives
for men. Yes, one good deed--a cup of water given without
thought of reward--is worth more than any benefit I imagined I
was bestowing on people. But after all was there not some share
of sincere desire to serve God?' he asked himself, and the answer
was: 'Yes, there was, but it was all soiled and overgrown by
desire for human praise. Yes, there is no God for the man who
lives, as I did, for human praise. I will now seek Him!”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“The next Post brought a reply from the starets, who wrote to him that the cause of all his trouble lay in his pride. His Wrathful Outburst, the starets explained, had come about because it was not for God that he had humbled himself, rejecting honours and advancement in the church - not for God, but to satisfy his own pride, to be able to tell himself how virtuous he was, seeking nothing for self. That was why he had not been able to endure the Superior's conduct. Because he felt that he had given up everything for God, and now he was being put on display, like some strange beast.
"If it were for God you had given up advancement, you would have let it pass.
worldly pride is still alive in you.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“But it was not only by this feeling, as Varvara thought, that he was guided. Mingling with his pride, with his need always to be first, was another motive, at which Varvara did not guess - a truly religious urge. His disillusionment in Mary (his betrothed), whom he had imagined such a saint, his feeling of outrage was so cruel that he sank into despair; and despair led him - whither? To God, to the faith of his childhood, which had never lost its hold upon him.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“...she lives for God imagining that she lives for men..One good deed - a cup of water given without the thought of reward - is worth more than any benefit I imagined I was bestowing on people. ..My share of sincere desire to serve God was there, but it was all soiled and overgrown by desire for human praise..”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“Our feet have reached the holy places, but our hearts may not have done so.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“He prayed for purity, humility, love, and now it seemed to him that God heard his prayers. He had not lagged behind the times in knowledge.
He now had neither love nor humility nor purity.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“when he was officiating in a depressed state of mind he felt that the influence produced on him by the service would endure. And it did in fact weaken till only the habit remained.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“His director told him, as material food was necessary for the body life, spiritual food is necessary for spiritual life. This was result of his consciousness of humility, certainty that whatever he had to do was right.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“She understood he became a monk in order to be above those who considered his superiors...it led him to God, to his childhood`s faith which had never been destroyed in him...”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“He thought himself a shining light, and the more he felt this the more he was conscious of a wakening, a dying down of the divine light of truth that shone within him.

'In how far is what I do for God and in how far it is for men?' That was the question that insistently tormented him and to which he was not so much unable to give himself an answer unable to face the answer.

In the depth of his soul he felt that the devil had substituted an activity for men in place of his former activity for God.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“The same talk, the same thoughts, and always about the same things! And they are all satisfied and confident that it should be so, and will go on living like that till they die.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“His whole attention and his whole interest were concentrated on his inner life.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

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― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“There are some things I would rather not know but they remain here pointing to his heart.
He took to reading having once in conversation in society felt himself deficient in general education and again achieved his purpose.
This did not satisfy him he was accustomed to being first,in this society he was far from being so.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“AS IN THE REGIMENT HE HAD BEEN NOT MERELY AN IRREPROACHABLE OFFICER but had exceeded his duties, widened the borders of perfection, also as a monk he tried to be perfect, was always industrious, abstemious, submissive, meek, as well as pure both in deed and
in thought and obedient. If many of the demands of life in the monastery which was near the capital, much frequented, did not please him, and were temptations to him, they were all nullified by obedience”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius

“...without any conscientious scruples condoning impurity in themselves, required ideal and angelic purity in their women...”
― Leo Tolstoy, Father Sergius