Ward: Abba Poemen said, "Do not judge yourself, but live with someone who knows how to behave himself properly." - Poemen

Ward: Abba Isaac came to see Abba Poemen and found him washing his feet. As he enjoyed freedom of speech with him he said, "How is it that others practice austerity and treat their bodies hardly?"
Abba Poemen said to him, "We have not been taught to kill our bodies, but to kill our passions."

How much joy, how much peace of soul would a man not have wherever he went, as Abba Poemen says, if he was one who habitually accused himself?

Ward: "Even if a man were to make a new heaven and earth, he could not live free of care."