Reason without love is a cold light that does not warm. Love without reason is a fire that burns blindly. And only the person who has learned to hold the torch of knowledge in one hand and the warmth of the heart in the other can illuminate the way for others without burning them or leaving them in darkness.
(from the spiritual conversations of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, “On Meeting”)
The glory of the young is their strength, and the adornment of the old is their gray hair.
(Proverbs of Solomon, 20:29)
The path to the Kingdom of Heaven is a sorrowful, narrow path, a path of suffering and deprivation. Every Christian must know this if they wish to follow Christ: they must prepare themselves for all kinds of deprivation, all kinds of sorrow, all kinds of persecution.
(Saint Luke of Crimea, commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, verse 22)
It is difficult, very difficult, to love people, for people have much malice, much that is repellent, and much falsehood. But force yourself to love them, compel yourself: remember that God is love; remember that without love, the entrance to the Kingdom of God is closed to you.
(Saint Luke of Crimea (Valentin Feliksovich Voyno-Yasenetsky))