St. Euthemius of Suzdal: The Greatest Virtue

 On being askes which is the greatest virtue, he would reply: "That which is carried out in secret."

+St. Euthemius of Suzdal, from his life in The Synaxarion, volume 4, entry for April 1.

St. Antony the Great: Endeavor to possess only the Kingdom

 Let us endeavor to possess nothing except what we shall take with us to the grave, namely, charity, meekness, righteousness and so on. Virtue, that is to say, the Kingdom of Heaven, needs only our good will, for it is within us. Actually, it consists simply in keeping the spiritual part of our soul in the purity and beauty in which it has been created.

+St. Antony the Great, from The Life of St. Antony, by St. Athanasius.

St. Gregory of Nyssa: Do our thoughts, words, and deeds look to Christ?

 What, then, is it necessary to do to be worthy of the name of Christ? What else than to distinguish in one's self the proper thoughts and words and deeds, asking whether they look to Christ or are at odds with Christ. Making the distinction is very easy. For whatever is done or thought or said through passion has no agreement with Christ, but bears the character of the adversary, who smears the pearl of the soul with the mud of the passions and dims the luster of the precious stone. What is free from every passionate inclination looks to the source of passionlessness, who is Christ.

+St. Gregory of Nyssa, from Ascetic Works, On Perfection