“No one and nothing can harm a man if he does not harm himself; on the contrary, if one does not avoid sin, a thousand means of salvation will not help him. Consequently, the only evil is sin: Judas fell while in the presence of the Savior, but the righteous Lot was saved while living in Sodom.” —St. Nikon of Optina, November 15-16/28-29, 1922, Optina Monastery, The Orthodox Word, 1980, vol. 16, no. 2 (91), March-April

“If our purpose is to fight the spiritual fight and to defeat, with God's help, the demons of malice, we should take every care to guard our heart from the demon of dejection, just as a moth devours clothing and a worm devours wood, so dejection devours a man’s soul. It persuades him to shun every helpful encounter and stops him accepting advice from his true friends or giving them a courteous and peaceful reply. Seizing the entire soul, it fills it with bitterness and listlessness. Then it suggests to the soul that we should go away from other people, since they are the cause of its agitation. It does not allow the soul to understand that its sickness does not come from without, but lies hidden within, only manifesting itself when temptations attack the soul because of our ascetic efforts.

“As long as we pay attention to the negative sides of various people we meet, we will not find peace and repentance. As long as we keep in ourselves the thought of offense, caused to us by enemies, friends, family and neighbours, we will not find peace and quiet and we will live in a hellish state.” —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

“If you are offended by anything, whether intended or unintended, you do not know the way of peace, which through love brings the lovers of divine knowledge to the knowledge of God.” —St. Maximus the Confessor