Gregory of Nyssa Quotes on Mind
Gregory of Nyssa was a fourth-century Cappadocian bishop and theologian and one of the architects of orthodox Trinitarian theology. This page collects quotes attributed to Gregory of Nyssa on the topic of mind, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
-
“Evil will come to nought and will be completely destroyed. The divine, pure goodness will contain in itself every nature endowed with reason; nothing made by God is excluded from his kingdom once everything mixed with some elements of base material has been consumed by refinement in fire.”
A Treatise on 1 Corinthians 15.28 -
“People who look down from some high peak on a vast sea below, probably feel what my mind has felt, looking out from the sublime words of the Lord as from a mountain-top at the inexhaustible depth of their meaning.”
Homilies on the Beautitudes VI: 1, tr. S. Hall, in H. R. Drobner and A. Viciano (edd.), Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on the Beatitudes: An English Version and Supporting Studies (Brill, Leiden, 2000). -
“Is it not want of reason in any one to suppose that when he has striven successfully to escape the dominion of one particular passion, he will find virtue in its opposite?”
Chapter 16 -
“My hope is that by the right process of inquiry and discernment, once the text has been cleansed of its obvious literal sense by undefiled thoughts, the philosophy hidden in the words may be brought to light.”
As translated by Richard A. Norris, Jr. (2012) | p. 3 -
“If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.”
Gregory of Nyssa, On Christian perfection , PG 46: 259-262. As quoted in J. Robert Wright , Readings from the Daily Office for the Early Church , Church Publishing Incorporated, 2013, p. 403. ISBN 9780898698985