Isaac of Nineveh

"Solitude lets us share in the divine Mind, and brings us close to limpidity of mind in a short time, without any hindrance."

"At the time of the sinking of the light and the atmosphere is suffocating,"

"A desolate place, because of the great barrenness that reigns there, causes us to acquire a deadness of heart ,"

"The state in the soul for truth is the stillness of the intellect,"

"Every reflection that exists is set in motion by the object of the reflection:"

"Wherever you are, be a solitary in your way of thinking—alone and a stranger in heart, not involved ."

"Do not reckon the entire mode of life"

"When the intellect has received an awareness of the beauty of its nature,"

"The first delight of the spiritual revelation of the mind is the contemplation of the care of God,"

"There was when that there was no name for God, and there is going to be when he will not have one."

"Some rational beings are without any appellations, and some have many names;"

"Just as the non-rational light was entrusted for the distinction of bodies,"

"If the light-giving elements were made for things corporeal for the use of bodies and the discernment of the senses,"

"Just as all namings and appellations that concern God were with him at the beginning of creation,"

"That the intellect should standing during the office or in prayer continually, again and again,"

"My brothers, the time of our lives is short,"

"None of those things by which God is now made known through nature"

"To the extent to which a person is distanced from the settled world,"

"Just as the sight of someone standing beside smoke cannot become clear"

"When the solitary has passed on to another"

"Once a person has, through divine assistance, become recollected from external concerns,"

"There is a spiritual perception which is born out of meditation;"

"It can also happen that from time to time a certain stillness, without any insights, can fall upon a person,"

"Luminous meditation on God is the goal of prayer;"

"There are times when a person is transported from prayer to a wondrous meditation on God."

"Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually"

"In the case of a person who has attained to this converse of contemplation in his ascetic way of life,"

"The mode of conduct of this (present) life provides (an opening) for the functioning of the senses,"

"When in these matters you receive the power which stems from grace to be bound firmly to their continual stirrings,"

"On the sequence of ways by which the mind is steered towards the glorious things pertaining to God."

"And when, again, he departs from these things,"

"Again, there is the person who has reached perfection on the level of the soul,"

"Just as there is nothing which resembles God,"

"What is conversation with God?"

"Thus, as I have said, there are many paths for this converse which exists with God in stillness,"

"Prayer, however, is lower in rank than being stirred in spirit: on this there is no dispute, for prayer is inferior to this mystery."

"For every event, natural being and utterance in this creation there is a Sanctuary and a Holy of Holies."

"So these are the different kinds of paths which discerning solitaries follow,"

"When it sometimes happens that a person is held worthy of prayer of fervour as a result of the surging of grace,"

"When he is held worthy of the prayer of understanding,"

"Or maybe there is someone who imagines that the level and the stirring of spiritual prayer consists in one of these things."

"What then shall we say?"

"There are times when a person sits in a stillness that is guarded and wakeful,"

"When someone reaches insights into creation on the path of his ascetic life,"

"By prayer I do not mean only the fixed Hours, the Hullale of the psalter and the liturgical hymns."

"When someone receives all the time an awareness of these mysteries,"

"This is the consummation of the (ascetic) life in the body (that takes place) on the level of the soul,"

"It is a matter for even more astonishment in the case of those who,"

"Now when the intellect has been illumined, even just a little,"

"So then, let us not attribute to God's actions and His dealings with us any idea of requital."