As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.
Interpretation
Envy can eat away at a person's soul just as a moth destroys fabric.
This quote illustrates the destructive nature of envy, comparing it to a moth that slowly consumes and damages clothing. It emphasizes how envy can erode an individual from within, leading to negative thoughts and behaviors that ultimately undermine one's well-being and happiness.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to urge people to focus on gratitude rather than envy.
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.
It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.
When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving (all these are attributes of God), to be generous, to love their follow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them.
Abba Moses asked Abba Sylvanus, Can a person lay a new foundation every day? The old man replied, If you work hard, you can lay a new foundation every moment. Abba Pimen said, To throw yourself before God, not to measure your progress, to leave behind all self-will; these are the instruments for the work of the soul. The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.
I hear no one boast, that he hath a knowledge of the Scriptures, but that he owneth a Bible written in golden characters. And tell me then, what profiteth this? The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.
Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
When you stir your rice pudding, Septimus, the spoonful of jam spreads itself round making red trails like the picture of a meteor in my astronomical atlas. But if you stir backwards, the jam will not come together again. Indeed, the pudding does not notice and continues to turn pink just as before. Do you think this is odd?
Much like a subtle spider which doth sit_x000D_ _x000D_ In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;_x000D_ _x000D_ If aught do touch the utmost thread of it,_x000D_ _x000D_ She feels it instantly on every side.
It just is nothing foreign to consciousness at all that could present itself to consciousness through the mediation of phenomena different from the liking itself; to like is intrinsically to be conscious.
Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure.
It was too late - everything was too late. For years now he had dreamed the world away, basing his decisions upon emotions unstable as water.
I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.
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