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John Chrysostom Books

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“[On what young husbands should say to their wives:] I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”

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Author:John Chrysostom
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“So it is with sorrow, each thinks his own present grief the most severe. For of this he judges by his own experience. He that is childless considers nothing so sad as to be without children; he that is poor, and has many children, complains of the extreme evils of a large family. He who has but one, looks upon this as the greatest misery, because that one, being set too much store by, and never corrected, becomes willful, and brings grief upon his father. He who has a beautiful wife, thinks nothing so bad as having a beautiful wife, because it is the occasion of jealousy and intrigue. He who has an ugly one, thinks nothing worse than having a plain wife, because it is constantly disagreeable. The private man thinks nothing more mean, more useless, than his mode of life. The soldier declares that nothing is more toilsome, more perilous, than warfare; that it would he better to live on bread and water than endure such hardships. He that is in power thinks there can be no greater burden than to attend to the necessities of others. He that is subject to that power, thinks nothing more servile than living at the beck of others. The married man considers nothing worse than a wife, and the cares of marriage. The unmarried declares there is nothing so wretched as being unmarried, and wanting the repose of a home. The merchant thinks the husbandman happy in his security. The husbandman thinks the merchant so in his wealth. In short, all mankind are somehow hard to please, and discontented and impatient.”

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Author:John Chrysostom
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“Therefore let nothing trouble you-neither anything that happens, nor anything that threatens to happen. For the waves do not violently shake the rock; rather, the more forcefully they dash upon it, the more they become dissipated. This is the way things work for the one standing firm; and indeed, there is a greater advantage. For the waves do not shake the rock; and they not only have not shaken you, but they have made you stronger. Such is wickedness, and such is virtue. The one, when attacked, is destroyed; while the other, when attacked, shines more brilliantly.”

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Book:Letters to Saint Olympia
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“And this is the way of sin. For before one commits a sin, it makes the one it has captured drunk. But when its purpose is fulfilled and it is committed, then its pleasure vanishes and is extinguished; the sinner then stands naked and condemned, and his conscience plays he role of the public executioner. Tearing into pieces the one who has sinned, it demands the most extreme punishment, weighing him down more heavily than all the lead in the world.”

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Book:Letters to Saint Olympia
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