Greed is never Satisfied
Ambrose said:
‘Avarice and pride are so much the same evil that you cannot find someone who is proud but not avaricious nor someone who is avaricious but not proud.’
Isidore said:
‘The greater our love for the things we possess, the greater our pain when we lose them.
‘Greed is insatiable. The person who is afflicted with it always needs something else; the more he has, the more he wants.
The powerful are nearly all so inflamed with a mad lust for possessions that they steer well clear of the poor. Small wonder that when they come to die they are condemned to the flames of hell, since they did nothing to put out the flames of greed during their lifetime.’
Defensor Grammaticus Book of Sparkling Sayings, 30 (SC77, pp.374ff.)
Anyone Given to Lust is Dead while Alive
Jerome said:
‘Woe to those who put an end to lust only at the end of life.
‘At banquets and in the midst of lustful pleasures, desire can take control even of an iron will. It is difficult to resist voluptuous delights and conserve modesty.
‘Sensuality will rule beneath the luxurious clothing and beneath rags; it fears not the purple of kings nor the squalor of beggars.
‘Anyone given to lust is dead while alive, anyone given to drunkenness is dead and buried.’
Gregory said:
‘The darts of lust are sharpened when the belly is full to bursting.’
Isidore said:
‘A spirit inflated by pride leads to lust and prostitution; chastity is preserved by a humble mind.’
Defensor Grammaticus Book of Sparkling Sayings, 21 (SC77 pp.31off.)
~ Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain, A Patristic Breviary: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World
