Limited Time Offer
Premium members can get their quote collection automatically imported into their Quotewise collections.
For the . . . right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp… - Athanasius of Alexandria
" "For the . . . right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp, so far as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word. One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life . . . . Anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds. Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyone who wants to look at sunlight naturally wipes his eye clear first, in order to make, at any rate, some approximation to the purity of that on which he looks; and a person wishing to see a city or country goes to the place in order to do so.
English
Collect this quote
About Athanasius of Alexandria
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 297 – 373) was the twentieth bishop of Alexandria. He who was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, a Doctor of the Church for Roman Catholics, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Also Known As
Native Name:
Ἀθανάσιος
Alternative Names:
Athanasius Alexandrinus
•
Sint Atanaze d’ Alegzandreye
•
Saint Athanasius
•
Athanasius
•
Athanasios of Alexandria
•
Athanasius I of Alexandria
•
Athanasius the Great
•
Athanasius the Confessor
•
Athanasius the Apostolic
•
Athanasius Contra Mundum
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Shorter versions of this quote
One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life. Anyone who wants to look at sunlight naturally wipes his eye clear first, in order to make, at any rate, some approximation to the purity of that on which he looks; and a person wishing to see a city or country goes to the place in order to do so. Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds. Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will both understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven.
Additional quotes by Athanasius of Alexandria
Works in ChatGPT, Claude, or Any AI
Add semantic quote search to your AI assistant via MCP. One command setup.
and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again. The presence and love of the Word had called them into being; inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it; for it is God alone Who exists, evil is non-being, the negation and antithesis of good.
Loading...