St Peter of Damaskos

Again, it is not authority that is bad, but the love of authority;
- not glory, but the love of glory and-what is worse— vainglory;
- not the acquisition of virtue, but to suppose that one has acquired it;
- not spiritual knowledge, but to think that one is wise and - worse than this - to be ignorant of one’s own ignorance;
- not true knowledge but what is falsely called knowledge (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20);
- not the world, but the passions;
- not nature, but what is contrary to nature;
- not agreement, but agreement to do what is evil does not contribute to the soul’s salvation;
-not the body’s members, but their misuse.

For sight was given us, not so that we should desire what we ought not to desire, but so that on seeing God’s creatures we might because of them glorify the Creator and thus nourish our soul and our body.

The ears were given us, not to listen to slander and stupidities, but to hear the word of God and every form of speech - of men, birds or anything else - that leads as to glorify the Creator.

The nose was given us, not so that we might debilitate and unbrace our soul with delectable perfumes, as St Gregory the Theologian puts it, but so that we might breathe the air bestowed on us by God, and glorify Him because of it; for without it neither man nor beast can live bodily.

St Peter of Damaskos