Three brothers once came to a hermit in Scetis. One of them said to him, 'Abba, I have memorized the Old and New Testaments.' But the hermit answered, 'And you have filled the air with words.' The second said to him, 'I have written out the Old and New Testaments with my own hand.' But the hermit said, 'And you have filled the window-ledge with…

A hermit said, 'If you lose gold or silver, you can find something as good as you lost. But the man who loses time can never make up what he has lost.'

At a meeting of the hermits in Cellia, Evagrius made a speech. Then the priest there said, 'Evagrius, we know that if you were in your own country, perhaps you would already be a bishop, ruling over many. Here you are only a pilgrim.' Evagrius was pierced to the heart at these words, but he bent his head calmly and without haste and looked at the ground,…

A hermit was asked how it was that some people said they had seen angels. He answered, 'Blessed is he who always sees his own sins.'

He also said, 'Evil cannot drive out evil. If anyone hurts you, do good to him and your good will destroy his evil.'

Macarius said to Zacharias, 'Tell me, what makes a monk?' He said, 'Isn't it wrong for you to be asking me?' Macarius said to him, 'I am sure I should ask you, Zacharias my son. There is something that urges me to ask you.' Zacharias said to him, 'As far as I can tell, abba, I think anyone who controls himself and makes himself content with just what he…

[Syncletica] also said, 'It is dangerous for a man to try teaching before he is trained in the good life. A man whose house is about to fall down may invite travellers inside to refresh them, but instead they will be hurt in the collapse of the house. It is the same with teachers who have not carefully trained themselves in the good life; they destroy…

Some brothers from Scetis wanted to visit Antony, and set out in a ship to go there. On board they met an old man who also wanted to go to Antony, but he did not belong to their party. During the voyage they talked about the sayings of the fathers, and the Scriptures, and then the manual work that they did, but the old man said nothing at all. When they…

They said of Agatho that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth in order to teach himself silence.

Arsenius always used to say this, 'Why, words, did I let you get out? I have often been sorry that I have spoken, never that I have been silent.'

A brother asked Poemen, 'How ought I to behave in my cell in the place where I live?' He answered, 'Be as prudent as a stranger; and wherever you are, do not expect your words to be taken seriously when you speak, and you will find peace.'

A hermit said, 'Do not be pleased at everything that is said, and do not agree with everything that is said. Be slow to believe, and quick to say what is true.'