Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Loving humility is the strongest of all things

Via Sojourners, and in honor of my brother James, who recommended The Brothers Karamazov to me:

"At some thoughts one stands perplexed, above all at the sight of human sin, and wonders whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide 'I will combat it by humble love.' If you resolve on that once for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible [extreme in degree or extent or amount or impac] force: it is the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it."
- Starets [Elder] Zosima,
from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky