By stinting the stomach, the heart is humbled

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 14 ~ On Gluttony

¶22. By stinting the stomach, the heart is humbled; but by pleasing the stomach, the mind becomes proud.

Give your stomach satisfying and digestible food

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 14 ~ On Gluttony

¶12. [Evagrius] says: ‘When our soul desires different foods, then confine it to bread and water.’ To prescribe this is like saying to a child: ‘Go up the whole ladder in one stride.’ And so, rejecting his rule, let us say: When our soul desires different foods, it is demanding what is proper to its nature. Therefore, let us also use cunning against our unscrupulous foe. And unless a very severe conflict is on us, or amends for falls, let us for a while only deny ourselves fattening foods, then heating foods, and only then what makes our food pleasant. If possible, give your stomach satisfying and digestible food, so as to satisfy its insatiable hunger by sufficiency, and so that we may be delivered from excessive desire, as from a scourge, by quick assimilation. If we look into the matter, we shall find that most of the foods which inflate the stomach also excite the body.

Satiety in food is the father of fornication

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 14 ~ On Gluttony

¶5. Satiety in food is the father of fornication; but affliction of the stomach is an agent of purity.
¶6. He who fondles a lion often tames it, but he who coddles the body makes it still wilder.

Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 14 ~ On Gluttony

¶2. Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out that it is hungry.

Spiritual heroes come to light at the time of despondency

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 13 ~ On Despondency

¶12. Spiritual heroes come to light at the time of despondency, for nothing procures so many crowns for a monk as the battle with despondency.

A courageous soul resurrects his dying mind

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 13 ~ On Despondency

¶9. Each of the other passions is destroyed by some particular virtue. But despondency for the monk is a general death.
¶10. A courageous soul resurrects his dying mind, but despondency and sloth squander all his riches.

Despondency is a paralysis of soul

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 13 ~ On Despondency

¶2. Despondency is a paralysis of soul, an enervation of the mind, neglect of asceticism, hatred of the vow made. It calls those who are in the world blessed. It accuses God of being merciless and without love for men. It is being languid in singing psalms, weak in prayer, like iron in service, resolute in manual labour, reliable in obedience.

He who is drunk with compunction cannot lie

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 12 ~ On Lying

¶14. He who has become merry with wine involuntarily speaks the truth on all subjects, and he who is drunk with compunction cannot lie.
The twelfth step. He who has mounted it has obtained the root of every good.

You can become a channel of profit for many

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 12 ~ On Lying

¶5. When the demons see that, after the mischievous relater of jests has begun, we attempt to flee from hearing him, as it were from an infectious disease, then they try to catch us by two thoughts, suggesting to us: ‘Do not offend the story-teller,’ or: ‘Do not appear to love God more than they do.’ Be off! Do not dally, otherwise at the time of your prayer, the jokes will recur to your mind. And not only run, but even piously disconcert the bad company by offering for their general attention the thought of death and judgment. For perhaps it is better for you to be sprinkled with a few drops of vainglory, if only you can become a channel of profit for many.

The friend of silence draws near to God

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 11 ~ On Talkativeness

¶5. The friend of silence draws near to God and, by secretly conversing with Him, is enlightened by God.

He who has become aware of his sins has controlled his tongue

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 11 ~ On Talkativeness

¶4. He who has become aware of his sins has controlled his tongue, but a talkative person has not yet come to know himself as he should.

Cutting off thoughts

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 15 ~ On Purity and Chastity

¶74. The discerning Fathers have defined that assault is one thing, converse another, consent another, captivity another, struggle another, passion so-called in the soul, another. And these blessed men define assault as a simple conception, or an image of something encountered for the first time, which has entered the heart. Converse is conversation with what has presented itself, accompanied by passion or dispassion. And consent is the bending of the soul to what has been presented to it, accompanied by delight. But captivity is a forcible and involuntary rape of the heart, or a permanent association with what has been encountered which destroys the good order of our condition. Struggle, according to their definition, is power equal to the attacking force, which is either victorious or else suffers defeat according to the soul’s desire. Passion, they say, is preeminently that which for a long time nestles with persistence in the soul, forming therein a habit, as it were, by the soul’s longstanding association with it, since the soul of its own free and proper choice clings to it. Of all these states, the first is without sin, the second not always, but the third is sinful or sinless according to the state of the contestant. Struggle is the occasion of crowns or punishments. Captivity is judged differently, according to whether it occurs at the time of prayer, or at other times; whether in things indifferent [neither good, nor bad], or in the case of evil thoughts. But passion is unequivocally condemned in every case, and demands either corresponding repentance or future punishment. Therefore, he who regards the first assault dispassionately cuts off at a single blow all the rest which follow.

Intelligent silence is the mother of prayer

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 11 ~ On Talkativeness

¶3. Intelligent silence is the mother of prayer, a recall from captivity, preservation of fire, an overseer of thoughts, a watch against enemies, a prison of mourning, a friend of tears, effective remembrance of death, a depicter of punishment, a delver into judgment, a minister of sorrow, an enemy of freedom of speech, a companion of stillness, an opponent of desire to teach, increase of knowledge, a creator of divine vision, unseen progress, secret ascent.

Talkativeness is the throne of vainglory

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 11 ~ On Talkativeness

¶2. Talkativeness is the throne of vainglory, on which it loves to show itself and make a display. Talkativeness is a sign of ignorance, a door to slander, an inducement to jesting, a servant of falsehood, the ruin of compunction, a creator and summoner of despondency, a precursor of sleep, the dissipation of recollection, the abolition of watchfulness, the cooling of ardour, the darkening of prayer.

Take careful note of virtues in others, not faults

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 10 ~ On Slander

¶16. A good grape-picker, who eats the ripe grapes, will not start gathering unripe ones. A charitable and sensible mind takes careful note of whatever virtues it sees in anyone. But a fool looks for faults and defects. And of such it is said: ‘They have searched after iniquity, and in searching they are grown weary of searching.’

Judging others incompatible with repentance

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 10 ~ On Slander

¶8. Fire and water are incompatible; and so is judging others in one who wants to repent. If you see someone falling into sin at the very moment of his death, even then do not judge him, because the Divine judgment is hidden from men. Some have fallen openly into great sins, but they have done greater good deeds in secret; so their critics were tricked, getting smoke instead of the sun.

Judge not, that ye shall not be judged

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 10 ~ On Slander

¶7. Do not regard the feelings of a person who speaks to you about his neighbour disparagingly, but rather say to him: ‘Stop, brother! I fall into graver sins every day, so how can I criticize him?’ In this way you will achieve two things: you will heal yourself and your neighbour with one plaster. This is one of the shortest ways to the forgiveness of sins; I mean, not to judge. ‘Judge not, that ye shall not be judged.’

The kind of love acceptable to the Lord

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 10 ~ On Slander

¶4. I have heard people slandering, and I have rebuked them. And these doers of evil replied in self-defence that they were doing so out of love and care for the person whom they were slandering. I said to them: ‘Stop that kind of love, otherwise you will be condemning as a liar him who said: “Him that privily talked against his neighbour, did I drive away.” If you say you love, then pray secretly, and do not mock the man. For this is the kind of love that is acceptable to the Lord.’ But I will not hide this from you (and of course be careful, lest you judge the offender): Judas was in the company of Christ’s disciples, and the thief was in the company of murderers. Yet it is a wondrous thing, how in a single instant, they exchanged places!

Slander wastes and drains the blood of love

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 10 ~ On Slander

¶2. Slander is an offspring of hatred, a subtle yet coarse disease, a leech lurking unfelt, wasting and draining the blood of love. It is simulation of love, the patron of a heavy and unclean heart, the ruin of chastity.

The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 9 ~ On Remembrance of Wrongs

¶17. The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance. But he who dwells on them and thinks that he is repenting is like a man who thinks he is running while he is really asleep.