On love for God and for one's neighbour
The radii of a circle meet at the centre, and the nearer they are to the centre, the nearer they are to one another. But if they move away from the centre, they move away from one another as well. So too with people: the further they are from God, the further they draw apart from one another. Love the one God — and thou wilt love all His children. God always cares for thee; cease not thou to care for thy neighbour. If thy neighbour, in thine opinion, is not worthy of love, then God is worthy of love, Whose servant and image he is; Christ is worthy of love, Who shed His blood for him. St Tikhon of Zadonsk
How are we to comfort those who mourn? — Weep together with them. Father Alexander (Elchaninov)
If you live with others, serve them as God Himself, and do not require love for love, praise for humility, gratitude for service. S. A. Nilus
They (the preachers of the cosmopolitan ideas of our latter days) speak endlessly of love for mankind, but give little heed to the one beside them. Yet love for one's neighbour means precisely love for all. The Saviour called us to love our neighbour, not to show general feelings towards the world. And the neighbour takes in everyone with whom a man may have any contact at all. For a child, the neighbour means the members of the family and a narrow circle of those close to him. For a grown man his country and people fill the space of the “neighbour”. With them he is bound by duties of state or of political citizenship. The culture of his own people, their way of life, their tradition are to him native and beloved. But to a fully developed person of high morals, every man is a neighbour. It must be said also that the third stage of growth presupposes the necessary existence of the first and second stages, just as the second presupposes the existence of the first. It is here that the cosmopolitans have made their mistake. They think of the third stage without the second and push people towards the creation of an unhealthy, empty, soulless society. Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
He who serves his neighbour with sincere love finds even weariness to be rest; but he who loves only himself and is slothful is wearied even by idleness. Schemamonk Paisios of the Holy Mountain
As a stove cannot be warm without fire, so a man who has departed from God, in whose heart God has not taken up His dwelling, cannot have love for his neighbour. Archbishop James of Nizhny Novgorod
The Lord loves each one of us; we too must love everyone. One may live in a poor hut, yet his soul may be the dwelling of the God in three Persons. He who sincerely loves God cannot but love his neighbour. Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov
It is impossible for a man to harm his neighbour without harming himself.
Egoism is the first link in a long chain of passions.
There is no more saving rule of life than to bear one another's burdens. Sts Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet
Love is love only when it is towards all without exception. But while it is turned only towards those whom “I” love, this is not love but egoism. Father Alexander Elchaninov
Love unites us in spirit even with those whom time and space have parted from us. St Barsanuphius the Great
It cannot be said: we love God, but do not love man... Without love it is impossible to live; we must love one another. Let us love our neighbour; let us love, if we would find the road that leads to God... if we would be happy. Only then will a man obtain the grace of God, when he is strengthened in spirit and lifted up. Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
God gave men the word “love”, that by it they might name their relation to the Lord. When men misuse this word and so name their earthly relations, it loses its meaning. Words lose their holy and divine power and as it were die. Just as a southern tree, transplanted to the north, withers and dies. Saint Nikolai of Serbia
