Top 150 Saint John Chrysostom Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “From the creation learn to admire thy Lord! And if any of the things thou see exceed thy comprehension, and thou are not able to find the reason thereof, yet for this glorify the Creator, that the wisdom of these works surpass thine understanding.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

52. “Nothing is more powerful than meekness. For as fire is extinguished by water, so a mind inflated by anger is subdued by meekness. By meekness we practice and make known our virtue, and also cause the indignation of our brother to cease, and deliver his mind from perturbation.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

53. “It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

54. “When we once begin to form good resolutions, God gives us every opportunity of carrying them out.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

55. “Fasting is a medicine.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

56. “Is it not excessively ridiculous to seek the good opinion of those whom you would never wish to be like?”

— Saint John Chrysostom

57. “There is nothing colder than a Christian who does not seek to save others.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

58. “Imagine your anger to be a kind of wild beast, because it has ferocious teeth and claws, and if you don’t tame it, it will devastate all things even corrupting the soul.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

59. “Endurance is the queen of all virtues.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

60. “Charity is indeed, a great thing, and a gift of God, and when it is rightly ordered likens us unto God himself, as far as that is possible; for it is charity which makes the man.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

61. “Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God’s mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

62. “As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

63. “If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

64. “You can set up an altar to God in your minds by means of prayer. And so it is fitting to pray at your trade, on a journey, standing at a counter or sitting at your handicraft.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

65. “The drunken man is a living corpse.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

66. “I hear no one boast, that he hath a knowledge of the Scriptures, but that he owneth a Bible written in golden characters. And tell me then, what profiteth this? The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

67. “In the Christian combat, not the striker, as in the Olympic contests, but he who is struck, wins the crown. This is the law in the celestial theatre, where the Angels are the spectators.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

68. “Let the mouth also fast from disgraceful speeches and railings. For what does it profit if we abstain from fish and fowl and yet bite and devour our brothers and sisters? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother and bites the body of his neighbor.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

69. “We should not bear it with bad grace if the answer to our prayer is long delayed. Rather, let us, because of this, show great patience and resignation. For He delays for this reason: that we may offer Him a fitting occasion of honoring us through His divine providence.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

70. “God measures out affliction to our need.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

71. “Men have the power of thinking that they may avoid sin.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

72. “I am a Christian. He who answers thus has declared everything at once-his country, profession, family; the believer belongs to no city on earth but to the heavenly Jerusalem.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

73. “We pray not to inform God or instruct Him but to beseech Him closely, to be made intimate with Him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of our sins.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

74. “A friend is more to be longed for than the light; I speak of a genuine one. And wonder not: for it were better for us that the sun should be extinguished, than that we should be deprived of friends; better to live in darkness, than to be without friends.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

75. “What is it to be a fool for Christ? It is to control one’s thoughts when they stray out of line. It is to make the mind empty and free...”

— Saint John Chrysostom

76. “Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

77. “The test of sincerity of one’s prayer is the willingness to labor on its behalf.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

78. “Are you angry? Be angry at your sins, beat your soul, afflict your conscience, but strict in judgement and a terrible punisher of your own sins. This is the benefit of anger, wherefore God placed it in us.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

79. “Of all the afflictions that burden the human race, there is not one, whether spiritual or bodily, that cannot be healed by the Holy Scriptures.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

80. “Words cannot express the joy which a friend imparts.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

81. “The pains of hell are not the greatest part of hell; the loss of heaven is the weightiest woe of hell.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

82. “Just as those who are deprived of light cannot walk straight, so also those who do not behold the ray of the Holy Scriptures must necessarily sin, since they walk in the deepest darkness.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

83. “Memory of our good works makes us negligent and leads to arrogance. Do not think of your good deeds, so that God may remember them.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

84. “The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

85. “Many can give money to those in need, but to personally serve the needy readily, out of love, and in a fraternal spirit, requires a truly great soul.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

86. “Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

87. “Yet, when we must put aside our wrath, quench our envy, soften our anger, offer our prayers, and show a disposition which is reasonable, mild, kindly, and loving, how could poverty stand in our way? For we accomplish these things not by spending money but by making the correct choice.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

88. “If we were not passionately inclined to money or to vainglory, then we would not fear death or poverty. We would not know enmity or hatred, and we would not suffer from the sorrows of ourselves or others.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

89. “If you would rise, shun luxury, for luxury lowers and degrades.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

90. “What gnats are compared with humans, so is the whole creation compared with God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

91. “Do you think that the man-loving God has given you much so that you could use it only for your own benefit? No, but so that your abundance might supply the lack of others.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

92. “It brings comfort to have companions in whatever happens.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

93. “There is harm not only in trying to gain wealth but also in excessive concern with even the most necessary things. It is not enough to despise wealth, but you must also feed the poor and, more importantly, you must follow Christ.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

94. “There are many poor men and poor women: set apart some one constantly to remain there: let the poor man be though but as a guard to thy house: let him be to thee wall and fence, shield and spear. Where alms are, the devil dares not approach, nor any other evil thing.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

95. “Whatever you may do for your brother, being hungry, and a stranger, and naked, not even the devil will be able to despoil, but it will be laid up in an inviolabe treasure.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

96. “Every time that we sin, we are born of the devil. But every time that we do good, we are born of God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

97. “That is true plenty, not to have, but not to want riches.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

98. “To love Christ -means not to be a hireling, not to look upon a noble life as an enterprise or trade, but to be a true benefactor and to do everything only for the sake of love for God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

99. “He that enjoys naught without thanksgiving is as though he robbed God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

100. “Dost thou wish to receive mercy? Show mercy to thy neighbor.”

— Saint John Chrysostom