“It sometimes happens that wicked people give a man poison; likewise the serpent of old, the devil, pours deadly poison into our nature. This poison tortures the soul and makes it ill. See what pride breeds in a man, how it torments him, what manifold ways it invents in search of the world’s honor and glory and praise! Having once grasped them, with what care it keeps this treasure! How indignant a man is if someone despises him! How he sickens, is troubled, grumbles and blasphemes when deprived of honors!”
- Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
