On the love of money (covetousness)
No passion is so hateful as pride, and none deserves so much mockery as the love of money. St Peter of Damascus
The money-loving man is the most unjust. He brought nothing with him at his birth, yet he cares for earthly treasure as though he would carry everything away with him at his end. The beginning of every sin is pride, and the root of every evil is the love of money. The first takes a man far from God, the second brings him near to the beasts. The lover of money has fallen away from God, for the love of money is idolatry. Father N. Sokolov
A man taken up with the thought and care of gold cannot strive towards heaven and desire the eternal, incorruptible treasure. His heart is shut up in riches as a snail in its shell, from which it has neither the desire nor the power to tear itself away. It is impossible to love both silver (money — M. B.) and the spirit together. St John Chrysostom
The desire to acquire often drowns out the voice of nature in parents, stirs up quarrels among brothers, fills the deserts with murderers, the seas with pirates and the cities with slanderers. St Basil the Great
The clink of metal so takes up the hearing of a lover of money that because of it his ear can no longer hear the word of the Lord. St John Chrysostom
Hear, all ye lovers of money, who are held by the sickness of Judas. Hear and beware of this evil passion. If he was with Christ, and heard so many teachings from Him, and received the grace of working wonders, and withal, as soon as he did not guard himself against this passion, fell into such a pit — what then shall we do, who are ignorant and are ever nailed to this passing world? St John Chrysostom
It is impossible to love silver and the Spirit (of God) at one and the same time. St John Chrysostom
Hell does not say “enough” (Prov. 30:16), and the covetous man will not admit “it is sufficient”. St Basil the Great
For a lover of money, riches are the same as a sword for a madman. St John Chrysostom
Every sin grows old together with a man; the love of gain alone grows younger day by day. St Ambrose of Milan
The Saviour's commandment about non-acquisitiveness — “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal” (Matt. 6:19) — concerns not only the rich but the poor also, for even a beggar may be chained to his one and only coin as a rich man is to a thousand. Archpriest Paul Sokolov
Dost thou wish to grow rich? Make friends with God, and thou wilt be the richest among the rich. St John Chrysostom
The love of money: the more it finds, the more it seeks.
If thou ceasest to obey Jesus and beginnest to gather unjustly, it will befall thee as it befell Judas, who not only gathered nothing but lost both soul and body. Metropolitan Anthony of Chkondidi
He who possesses material riches is always sorrowful and troubled: either he trembles for his goods, lest someone take them away, or lest they take away his soul. Such is the miser, whose closed hand aches; he has closed his heart also and turned it to stone. That he may be healed, a suffering man must meet him and shake him inwardly; then he will be forced little by little to open his closed hand, and his stony heart will soften and become a human heart, and the doors of paradise will be opened to him as well. Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain
