On Vice

Each of us, let us acknowledge it, is the first author of his own vice.
St. Basil the Great

Inevitable necessity

If the origin of our virtues and of our vices is not in ourselves, but is the fatal consequence of our birth, it is useless for legislators to prescribe for us what we ought to do, and what we ought to avoid; it is useless for judges to honour virtue and to punish vice. The guilt is not in the robber, not in the assassin: it was willed for him; it was impossible for him to hold back his hand, urged to evil by inevitable necessity.
St. Basil the Great

Name your favorite modern master of Biblical exegesis

...giving themselves up to the distorted meaning of allegory, have undertaken to give a majesty of their own invention to Scripture. It is to believe themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and to bring forth their own ideas under a pretext of exegesis. Let us hear Scripture as it has been written.
St. Basil the Great

On "liturgical piety"

...it is difficult to reconcile oneself also to the term 'liturgical piety.' In the ordinary usage of words, piety is Christian faith, hope and love, independently of the forms of their expression. Such an understanding is instilled in us by the sacred Scriptures, which distinguish only authentic piety (piety is profitable unto all things - I Tim. 4:8) from false or empty piety (James 1:26, II Tim. 3:5). Piety is expressed in prayer, in Divine services, and the forms of its expression vary depending on circumstances: whether in church, at home, in prison, or in the catacombs, But we Orthodox scarcely need a special term like 'liturgical piety' or 'church piety,' as if one were pious in a different manner in church than at home, and as if there existed two kinds of religiousness: 'religiousness of faith' and 'religiousness of cult.' Both the language of the Holy Fathers and the language of theology have always done without such a concept. And therefore it is a new conception, foreign to us, of a special liturgical piety.

If we speak of worship as members of the Orthodox Church, there should be present to us that principle in the understanding of the history of our worship and its present status by which the Church Herself lives. ...if we maintain the Orthodox Symbol of Faith, if we confess that we stand on the right dogmatic path, we should not doubt that both the direction of church life and the structure of worship which was erected on the foundation of our Orthodox confession of faith, are faultless and true. We cannot acknowledge that our 'liturgical piety,' after a series of reformations, has gone far, far away from the spirit of Apostolic times.
Fr. Michael Pomazansky

...piety is, as it were, the groundwork and foundation of perfection.
St. Basil the Great

On Creation

I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that everywhere, wherever you may be, the least plant may bring to you the clear remembrance of the Creator.

...shall we, whom the Lord, the great worker of marvels, calls to the contemplation of His own works, tire of looking at them, or be slow to hear the words of the Holy Spirit? Shall we not rather stand around the vast and varied workshop of divine creation and, carried back in mind to the times of old, shall we not view all the order of creation?

...the sight of the moon, making us think of the rapid vicissitudes of human things, ought to teach us not to pride ourselves on the good things of this life, and not to glory in our power, not to be carried away by uncertain riches, to despise our flesh which is subject to change, and to take care of the soul, for its good is unmoved.

...the world was not conceived by chance and without reason, but for an useful end and for the great advantage of all beings, since it is really the school where reasonable souls exercise themselves, the training ground where they learn to know God; since by the sight of visible and sensible things the mind is led, as by a hand, to the contemplation of invisible things.

St. Basil the Great

On Susceptibility

If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption.
St. Basil the Great

The least plants

The whole universe cannot give us a right idea of the greatness of God; and it is only by signs, weak and slight in themselves, often by the help of the smallest insects and of the least plants, that we raise ourselves to Him.
St. Basil the Great

To remember during Lent

The time which you lend to God is not lost: he will return it to you with large interest.
St. Basil the Great

And while you're lending your time remember this.

To continue with a theme...

…they are incapable from the debasement of their reasonings of raising their glances to the height of truth.
St. Basil the Great

Church

...where the voices of men, of children, and of women, arise in our prayers to God mingling and resounding like the waves which beat upon the shore. This Church also enjoys a profound calm, and malicious spirits cannot trouble it with the breath of heresy.
St. Basil the Great

Enemies of sound doctrine

The one aim of the whole band of these enemies of sound doctrine is to shake the faith of Christ down to its foundations, by utterly levelling apostolic tradition to the ground. They clamor for written proofs and reject the unwritten testimony of the Fathers as worthless, proving themselves worse than debtors who refuse to pay what they owe when there is no written evidence of the loan.
St. Basil the Great

St. Basil refutes the "Enlightenment" 1300 years before it commenced

…the corrupters of the truth, who, incapable of submitting their reason to Holy Scripture, distort at will the meaning of the Holy Scriptures…
St. Basil the Great

Life-giving grace

…the tradition we have received through life-giving grace must remain unchanged forever. He who redeemed our life from corruption gave us the power to be renewed, and the source of this power is hidden in an indescribable mystery. It brings great salvation to our souls, but to add or to take anything away from it is to forfeit eternal life.
St. Basil the Great

Band of Enemies

The one aim of the whole band of these enemies of sound doctrine is to shake the faith of Christ down to its foundations, by utterly levelling apostolic tradition to the ground. They clamor for written proofs and reject the unwritten testimony of the Fathers as worthless, proving themselves worse than debtors who refuse to pay what they owe when there is no written evidence of the loan.

St. Basil the Great

worldlings- a rodent similar to an R.O.U.S.

...it is those never content with accepted ways who despise the old as being stale, constantly welcoming innovation, like worldlings who are always chasing after the latest fashion.

St. Basil the Great

Those are some pretty powerful words there junior

De-gendrifying Lutherans

Instructions begins with the proper use of speech, and syllables and words are the elements of speech. Therefore to scrutinize syllables is not a superflous task.

...what theological term is so insignificant that it will not greatly upset the balance of the scales, unless it is used correctly?

Those who are idle in the pursuit of righteousness count theological terminology as secondary... those conscious of the goal of our calling realize that we are to become like God...

St. Basil the Great