“Not knowing God's intentions and judgments concerning us, in troubles, sorrows and illnesses we often, often complain to God that He punishes us beyond our strength and beyond our faults, but when the misfortunes and God's punishing visitation end, then even a little attention to ourselves convinces us that the sorrow was both useful and necessary for us, because it made us morally better and more attentive to ourselves, to our spiritual needs. If the heavenly Physician of souls had not given us the sharp and burning medicine of sorrow, then we would not have known the madness and destructiveness of sin, would not have turned away from it, would not have returned to the path of truth, duty and honor, would not have tasted the sweetness of virtue; we would not have known that in God, only in God is all our good: peace of soul, strength, light, glory, its life, true joy and ineffable sweetness. A true Christian is formed only under the cross: whoever does not bear the cross, that is, temptations, sorrows, deprivations, cannot be a true Christian, he is always a slave to sin, sinful habits and passions.” —St. John of Kronstadt

“If you want, or rather intend, to take a splinter out of another person, then do not hack at it with a stick instead of a lancet, for you will only drive it in deeper.” —St. John Climacus