"When a person gives himself over to sensory distractions or worldly pursuits, his mind grows dim and unfruitful. He quickly loses his fervor, his spirit of contrition, his boldness before God, and his grasp of spiritual truth. He drifts from the awareness of God and forgets the paths that lead to Him."

"One who remembers God only occasionally squanders through inconsistency whatever he had hoped to gain. The mark of a genuine lover of holiness is that he ceaselessly burns away what is worldly in his heart through the practice of remembering God."

"The entire aim of the adversary is to pull the mind away from the remembrance, reverence, and love of God and to turn it from what is genuinely good toward what merely appears to be good."

"Whoever walks the spiritual path should turn every desire toward the Lord, whom he loves. When he does so, no competing passion will find room to stir up any lesser desire within him."

"The mind falls easily prey to the illusions of darkness unless it harbors a governing or superseding thought that reigns over the passions and continually restrains and checks them."

"Since every passion, once it takes hold of a person, can bind his intelligence in chains, why cannot a zeal for holiness restrain our minds free from all else?"

"The power of an idea endures as long as it remains unchallenged by a stronger one. In the same way, sensual desire keeps its grip so long as it is not displaced by some nobler thought that governs the soul. If we wish to be free of sensual desire, we must, through spiritual reading, redirect our thinking and nurture and sustain good desires by dwelling upon them."

"If you do not guard your mind with care, the images of old fantasies will begin to resurface like tender shoots. Left unchecked, these thoughts and images will cause the passions to reestablish themselves within you. Despite every victory you have already won, you will find yourself wrestling with them once more. For the passions, though tamed like cattle, regain the ferocity of wild beasts the moment we grow careless."

"Do not count it a loss to go without sensual pleasure; rather, mourn the failure to reach higher things because you indulged in such pleasures."

"Whoever dwells in the paradise of prayer and stands before God in ceaseless remembrance is lifted by God beyond the pull of the flesh, beyond every stirring of the senses and every fantasy of sensory things of the mind."

The Secret Remembrance

To forget is to be in a state of mind similar to ignorance. For when a man forgets, the light of knowledge is hidden and he dwells in the same darkness as the man who never knew. Since the distractions of the world cause us to forget God, the Orthodox Church instructs us to attain an unbroken state of recollection of God through prayer, spiritual reading and contemplation. Knowing that this holy state brings many blessings to us, the enemy of our souls uses earthly pleasures to divert us from this solemn remembrance that we would pursue happiness in temporal things and forget God. The remedy for this spiritual amnesia consists in being ever mindful of God and to burn away every inordinate thought and affection in the Fire of this Remembrance.

Quotes from The Philokalia

“Never forget what is worth remembering, nor remember what is best forgotten.”