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Gregory of Nyssa Quotes
335–395 Greece
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395), also known as Gregory Nyssen, was bishop of Nyssa, Cappadocia, from 372 to 376 and from 378 until his death. He is venerated as a saint in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism.
Also known as: Gregory of Nissa
Random Gregory of Nyssa quote
25 quotes
The love of gain, which is a large, incalculably large, element in every soul, when once applied to the desire for God, will bless the man who has it.
Every concept that comes from some comprehensible image, by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the Divine nature, constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God.
As virtue is a thing that has no master, that is, is free, everything that is free will be united with virtue.
Who gives you the day will give you also the things necessary for the day.
God's name is not known; it is wondered at.
The word of God, in fact, promises life just as the effect of death.
Virtue is achieved by its seekers not without a struggle; nor is abstinence from the paths of pleasure a painless process to human nature.
He longs for heaven to allow me too to be born at the right time and die at the most appropriate time.
Those who delight in perennial realities and authentic values are considered foolish by those who lack true wisdom.
He who is in the light sees no darkness, so he who has his eye fixed in Christ can contemplate but splendor.
We are blind to all those things that concern the transience of life, because we fix our eyes on the things above.
We remain imperfect and immature, until it has formed in us, as the Apostle says, «the image of Christ».
Is it not want of reason in any one to suppose that when he has striven successfully to escape the dominion of one particular passion, he will find virtue in its opposite?
Every act that extends from God to creation... originates in the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is completed by the Holy Spirit.
Heaven and not earth is man's homeland.
People who look down from some high peak on a vast sea below, probably feel what my mind has felt, looking out from the sublime words of the Lord as from a mountain-top at the inexhaustible depth of their meaning.
Man was made in the image of God; that like, I take it, might be able to see like; and to see God is ... the life of the soul.
My hope is that by the right process of inquiry and discernment, once the text has been cleansed of its obvious literal sense by undefiled thoughts, the philosophy hidden in the words may be brought to light.
As translated by Richard A. Norris, Jr (2012)
If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.
With the eye in a natural state sight follows necessarily ... In the same way the life of blessedness is as a familiar second nature to those who have kept clear the senses of the soul.
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