One day someone asked [St. Macarius] how to make progress on the path to salvation. The saint sent him to the cemetery, first to insult the dead then to praise them, and when he came back, he said: "Look, the corpses said not a word to you in reply. Similarly, if you want to be saved you too must become like a dead man, making as little of the contempt of men as of their praises."
...
He acquired expert knowledge of the different kinds of demon. He said that they can be divided into two main categories: one consisting of the spirits which arouse passions such as anger and covetousness; and the other, more dreadful, of the spirits which mislead men by spiritual illusion, blasphemy and heresies.
...
His exceeding charity led him to pray with tears even for the damned. One day as he was walking in the desert, he came upon the skull of a pagan priest, which addressed him, saying: "Each time that you have pity on those who are in torments - on us who are plunged into the fire with our faces pressed against the backs of the one's in front - we receive a measure of comfort in being able for a while to see the faces of our fellow sufferers."
+St. Macarius the Great of Egypt, from his life in The Synaxarion Volume 3, entry for January 19.
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