Top 150 Saint John Chrysostom Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

102. “In the matter of piety, poverty serves us better than wealth, and work better than idleness, especially since wealth becomes an obstacle even for those who do not devote themselves to it.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

104. “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

105. “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

106. “What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger. Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

107. “One who strictly prosecutes the misdemeanors of others will find not condescension towards his own.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

108. “The slave should be resigned to his lot, in obeying his master he is obeying God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

109. “Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

110. “Why do you beat the air and run in vain? Every occupation has a purpose, obviously. Tell me then, what is the purpose of all the activity of the world? Answer, I challenge you! It is vanity of vanity: all is vanity.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

111. “A man’s readiness and commitment are not enough if he does not enjoy help from above as well; equally help from above is no benefit to us unless there is also commitment and readiness on our part.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

112. “Wine was given us by God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober. It is the best medicine when it has the best moderation to direct it. Wine was given to restore the body’s weakness, not to overturn the soul’s strength.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

113. “God does not forsake you. It is because he wishes to increase your glory that oftentimes he permits you to fall sick. Keep up your courage so that you may also hear him say: Do you think I have dealt with you otherwise than that you may be shown to be just?”

— Saint John Chrysostom

114. “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

115. “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

116. “No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

117. “Depart from the highway, and transplant thyself in some enclosed ground; for it is hard for a tree that stands by the wayside to keep her fruit till it be ripe.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

118. “No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbour a hell awaits with an inextinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not, therefore, adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

119. “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

120. “O most grateful burden, which comforts them that carry it! The burdens of earthly masters gradually wear out the strength of those who carry them; but the burden of Christ assists the bearers of it, because we carry not grace, but grace us.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

121. “If then we have Angels, let us be sober, as though we were in the presence of tutors; for there is a demon present also.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

122. “And all men are ready to pass judgement on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

123. “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

124. “Things themselves do not remain, but their effects do. Therefore we should not be mean and calculating with what we have but give with a generous hand. Look at how much people give to players and dancers-why not give just as much to Christ?”

— Saint John Chrysostom

125. “Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

126. “Shall I tell you of their plundering, their covetousness, their abandonment of the poor, their thefts, their cheating in trade?”

— Saint John Chrysostom

127. “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

128. “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

129. “If repentance is neglected for an instant, one can lose the power of the Resurrection as he lives with the weakness of tepidity and the potential of his fall.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

130. “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

131. “Good men do not always have grace and favor, lest they should be puffed up, and grow insolent and proud.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

132. “We ought not, as soon as we leave church, to plunge into business unsuited to church, but as soon as we get home, we should take the Scriptures into our hands, and call our wife and children to join us in putting together what we have heard in church.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

133. “For nothing so much disturbs the mind, though it be done for some beneficial purpose, as to innovate and introduce strange things, and most of all when this is done in matters relating to divine worship and the glory of God.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

134. “Him who is dead and gone honor with remembrance, not with tears.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

135. “Make account that thou hast done nothing, and then thou hast done all. For if, being sinners, when we account ourselves to be what we are, we become righteous, as indeed the Publican did; how much more, when being righteous we account ourselves to be sinners.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

136. “Intemperance is a hydra with a hundred heads. She never stalks abroad unaccompanied with impurity, anger, and the most infamous profligacies.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

137. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

139. “A man does not possess all the gifts, lest he think that grace is nature.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

140. “It is a shame for a man to desire honor because of his noble progenitors, and not to deserve it by his own virtue.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

141. “What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which the Son, who is Truth, uttered with His own lips?”

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

143. “Nothing is more fallacious than wealth. It is a hostile comrade, a domestic enemy.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

144. “The Holy Scriptures do not know any distinctions. They enjoin that all lead the life of monks.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

145. “Do not the angels differs from us in this respect, that they do not want so many things as we do? Therefore the less we need, the more we are on our way to them; the more we need, the more we sink down to this perishable life.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

146. “Where dance is, there is the devil.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

147. “Laughter does not seem to be a sin, but it leads to sin.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

148. “Labor: a powerful medicine.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

149. “I do not think there are many among Bishops that will be saved, but many more that perish.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

150. “Let us not overlook so great a gain.”

— Saint John Chrysostom