An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith Quotes

“evil is nothing else than absence of goodness, just as darkness also is absence of light. For goodness is the light of the mind, and, similarly, evil is the darkness of the mind. Light, therefore, being the work of the Creator and being made good (for God saw all that He made, and behold they were exceeding good(8)) produced darkness at His free-will.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“Envy is pain over the good fortune of others.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“It must not be supposed that the heavens or the luminaries are endowed with life(3). For they are inanimate and insensible(4). So that when the divine Scripture saith, Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad(5), it is the angels in heaven and the men on earth that are invited to rejoice.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“all the statements made about God that imply body have some hidden meaning and teach us what is above us by means of something familiar to ourselves, with the exception of any statement concerning the bodily sojourn of the God-Word.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“the very continuity of the creation, and its preservation and government, teach us that there does exist a Deity, who supports and maintains and preserves and ever provides for this universe.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“since the wickedness of the Evil One has prevailed so mightily against man’s nature as even to drive some into denying the existence of God, that most foolish and woe-fulest pit of destruction (whose folly David, revealer of the Divine meaning, exposed when he said(9), The fool said in his heart, There is no God),”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“Even the very continuity of creation, and its preservation and government, teach us that there does exist a God who supports and maintains and preserves and ever provides for this universe. For how could opposite natures, such as fire and water, air and earth, have combined with each other so as to form one complete world, and continue to abide in indissoluble union, were there no some omnipotent Power which bound them together and always is preserving them from dissolution?”
― John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“One must know that operation (energia) is one thing, what is operative (energetikon) another, that which is operated (energema) another, and yet another the operator (energon). Operation, then, is the efficient and essential (ousiodes) motion of the nature (physeos). And that which is operative is the nature (physis) from which the operation proceeds. The operated is the effect of the operation. And the operator is the person (hypostasis) who performs the operation.”
― John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“For there never was a time when the Father was and the Son was not, but always the Father and always the Son, Who was begotten of Him, existed together. For He could not have received the name Father apart from the Son: for if He were without the Son(7), He could not be the Father: and if He thereafter had the Son, thereafter He became the Father, not having been the Father prior to this, and He was changed from that which was not the Father and became the Father.”
― John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“По природа всичко е подчинено и послушно на Създателя. Затова всеки път, щом някое създание своеволно се възпротиви и стане непослушно към Сътворилия го, то произвежда зло в самото себе си.”
― Св. преподобни Йоан Дамаскин, Точно изложение на православната вяра

“he did not sustain the brightness and the honour which the Creator had bestowed(5) on him, and of his free choice was changed from what was in harmony to what was at variance with his nature, and became roused against God Who created him, and determined to rise in rebellion against Him(6): and he was the first to depart from good and become evil(7).”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“They are above us for they are incorporeal, and are free of all bodily passion, yet are not passionless:”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“It is not susceptible of repentance because it is incorporeal. For it is owing to the weakness of his body that man comes to have repentance.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“The angel’s nature then is rational, and intelligent, and endowed with free-will, change. able in will, or fickle. For all that is created is changeable, and only that which is un-created is unchangeable. Also all that is rational is endowed with free-will. As it is, then, rational and intelligent, it is endowed with free-will: and as it is created, it is changeable, having power either to abide or progress in goodness, or to turn towards evil.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“He brought all things out of nothing into being and created them, both what is invisible and what is visible. Yea, even man, who is a compound of the visible and the invisible. And it is by thought that He creates, and thought is the basis of the work, the Word filling it and the Spirit perfecting it(2).”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“The Son is the counsel and wisdom and power of the Father.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“He who longs alway after God, he seeth Him: for God is in all things. Existing things are dependent on that which is, and nothing can be unless it is in that which is. God then is mingled with everything, maintaining their nature: and in His holy flesh the God-Word is made one in subsistence and is mixed with our nature, yet without confusion.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“The angel energises in different places by the quickness of his nature and the promptness and speed by which he can change his place: but the Deity, Who is everywhere and above all, energises at the same time in diverse ways with one simple energy.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“For the Godhead is not compound but in three perfect subsistences, one perfect indivisible and uncompound God.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“goodness is existence and the cause of existence, but wickedness is the negation of goodness, that is, of existence.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“it is quite impossible for us men clothed about with this dense covering of flesh to understand or speak of the divine and lofty and immaterial energies of the Godhead, except by the use of images and types and symbols derived from our own life(7).”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“the Deity is undivided amongst things divided, to put it concisely: and it is just like three suns cleaving to each other without separation and giving out light mingled and conjoined into one.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“we recognise one God: but only in the attributes of Fatherhood, Sonship, and Procession, both in respect of cause and effect and perfection of subsistence, that is, manner of existence, do we perceive difference(5).”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“the term ‘Only-begotten’(1) because He alone was begotten alone of the Father alone.”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“For generation means that the begetter produces out of his essence offspring similar in essence. But creation and making mean that the creator and maker produces from that which is external, and not out of his own essence, a creation of an absolutely dissimilar nature(3).”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

“The Creator, then, being uncreated, is also wholly immutable. And what could this be other than Deity?”
― John Damascene, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith