Top 150 Saint John Chrysostom Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “I exhort and entreat you all, disregard what this man and that man thinks about such things, and inquire from the Holy Scriptures all these things.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

102. “Mary was made Mother of God to obtain salvation for many who, on account of their wicked lives, could not be saved according to the rigor of Divine justice, but might be saved with the help of her sweet mercy and powerful intercession.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

103. “Woman -a foe of friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

104. “When the Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels, who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

105. “Almsgiving above all else requires money, but even this shines with a brighter luster when the alms are given from our poverty. The widow who paid in the two mites was poorer than any human, but she outdid them all.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

106. “What shepherd feeds his sheep with his own blood? But Christ feeds us with His own Blood and in all things unites us to Himself.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

107. “If you wish to leave much wealth to your children, leave them in God’s care. Do not leave them riches, but virtue and skill. For if they learn to expect riches, they will not mind anything besides, and their abundant riches shall give them the means of screening the wickedness of their ways.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

108. “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

109. “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

110. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

112. “Every trace of the old philosophy and literatureof the ancient world has vanished from the face of the earth.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

113. “Feet were made, not given for dancing, but to walk modestly, not to leap impudently like camels.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

114. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

116. “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

117. “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

118. “What the soul is in the body, let Christians be in the world.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

119. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

122. “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

123. “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

124. “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

125. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

127. “Musicke doth withdraw our mindes from earthly cogitations, lifteth up our spirits into heaven, maketh them light and celestial.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

129. “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

130. “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

131. “Words would be superfluous if we had deeds to show for Them.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

132. “Let us return from that Table like lions breathing out fire, terrifying to the devil!”

— Saint John Chrysostom

133. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

136. “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

137. “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

138. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

141. “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

142. “Labor: a powerful medicine.”

— Saint John Chrysostom

143. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

148. “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

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

— Saint John Chrysostom

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

— Saint John Chrysostom