Saint Nilus of Sinai

The beginning of fruitfulness is the blossom, and the beginning of the ascetic life is abstinence.

Abstinence from the overfilling of the belly lessens the passions, while gluttony multiplies the passions of sensual pleasure.

Excess of food gave birth to disobedience, and indulgence drove man out of paradise.

Costly food gives pleasure to the palate, but it also feeds the never-sleeping worm of lust.

A belly not overfilled disposes a man to wakefulness in prayer, while one overfilled presses on towards deep sleep.

In temperate eating, wakefulness is understanding, while a life sated with comfort is led by the mind into deep sleep.

If thou give thyself over to the passion of gluttony, nothing will satisfy thy craving for pleasure, for the kindling of gluttony is a fire that demands liveliness and ever some new thing.

Gluttony feeds the thoughts, and drunkenness gives birth to fantasies.

The sweetness dies the moment the food passes the throat, but by it the passions come to life.

The labour of tilling one's own plot of land brings rest; but the end of the various kinds of comfort is bitterness (either a trial of the flesh upon earth, or punishment in the age to come).

The mother of passionate pleasure is gluttony, for it gives birth both to indulgence and to many other passions. From it, as a trunk from a root, the other passions come forth, and it will soon be equal to those trees which itself has brought forth: its branches will be the vices, which will reach up to heaven. Thus love of money, anger and despondency are what gluttony brings forth and rears. He who abides in gluttony needs before all else money to satisfy his ever-kindled desires, which nevertheless are never satisfied; then against those who hinder him from getting money there arises anger in him; and when anger has no power to show itself in deed, despair arises.