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In general, just as painters in working from models constantly gaze at their exemplar and thus strive to transfer the expression of the original to their own artistry, so too he who is anxious to make himself perfect in all the kinds of virtue must gaze upon the lives of the saints as upon statues, so to speak, that move and act, and must make their excellence his own by imitation.

— Basil of Caesarea

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More quotes by Basil of Caesarea

When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

We thus become temples of God whenever earthly cares cease to interrupt the continuity of our memory of Him.

For the hopes of men have been justly called waking dreams.

You must give heed unto virtue, O men, which swims forth even with a man who has suffered shipwreck, and, on his coming naked to land, will render him more honoured than the happy Phaeacians.

The earth doth not cover our beloved, but heaven hath received him; let us tarry for a while, and we shall be in his company.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Basil of Caesarea (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.