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1 " We make Idols of our concepts, but Wisdom is born of wonder "
― Pope Gregory I
2 " The bliss of the elect in heaven would not be perfect unless they were able to look across the abyss and enjoy the agonies of their brethren in eternal fire. "
3 " For it is no doubt impossible to eradicate everything at once from their obstinate minds, because he who endeavours to reach the highest place rises by degrees or steps and not by leaps. "
4 " [S]ome sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other. "
― Pope Gregory I , The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great (Christian Roman Empire Series)
5 " If before the severe judge idle speech is reprehended, how much more that which is hurtful. Consider, then, how damnable those words be, which proceed of malice, when that talk shall be punished which proceedeth only from idleness. "
6 " There are some so restless that when they are free from labour they labour all the more, because the leisure they they have for thought, the worse interior turmoil they have to bear. "
7 " No one does more harm in the Church than he who has the title or rank of holiness and acts perversely. "
― Pope Gregory I , The Book of Pastoral Rule
8 " The sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them. "
9 " I am an ape forced to play the lion. "
10 " those who do not speak the words of God with humility must be advised that when they apply medicine to the sick, they must first inspect the poison of their own infection, or else by attempting to heal others, they kill themselves. "
11 " Moreover, because the slothful mind is typically brought to its downfall gradually, when we fail to control our speech, we move on to more harsh words. Thus, at first, we are happy to speak of others kindly; afterwards, we begin to pick at the lives of those of whom we speak, and finally our tongues break into open slander against them. "
12 " Pope Gregory believed that successful pastoral leadership required a balance between the contemplation of the isolated ascetic and the action of the well-trained administrator. "
13 " From his younger years, he always had the mind of an old man; for his age was inferior to his virtue. All vain pleasure he despised, and though he was in the world, and might freely have enjoyed such commodities as it yields, yet he esteemed it and its vanities as nothing. "
― Pope Gregory I , Life And Miracles Of St. Benedict: (Book Two of the Dialogues)
14 " The spiritual director should not reduce his attention to the internal life because of external occupations, nor should he relinquish his care for external matters because of his anxiety for the internal life. "
15 " Necessity demands that one should carefully examine who it is that comes to the position of spiritual authority; and coming solemnly to this point, how he should live; and living well, how he should teach; and teaching rightly, with what kind of self-examination he should learn of his own weakness. "
16 " And let the fear and dread of you be upon all of the animals of the earth.”45 Clearly, fear and dread were prescribed for the animals, but evidently it was forbidden among humans. By nature a human is superior to a brute animal, but not other humans. "
17 " Tunc enim robustius contra vitia erigitur, cum subdita rationi famulatur. "
18 " Against such the Lord complains by the prophet, saying, They have reigned, and not by Me; they have been set up as princes, and I knew it not (Hos. viii. 4). "
19 " The shepherds themselves have not known understanding (Isai. lvi. 11); whom again the Lord denounces, saying, And they that handle the law knew Me not (Jer. ii. 8). "
20 " because in truth these who know not the things of the Lord are unknown of the Lord; as Paul attests, who says, But if any man knoweth not, he shall not be known (1 Cor. xiv. 38). "
