If, at the time when the mind is praying it is distracted by any extraneous thought or worry about anything, then this prayer is not called pure.

Why do you increase your bonds? Take hold of your life before your light grows dark and you seek help and do not find it. This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.

The Commandments of God are higher than all the treasures of the earth. Whoever has acquired them has received God within himself.

When you want to make a beginning of a good deed, first prepare for temptations, which will come to you, and don't doubt the truth of that which you do for God.

Love is the fruit of prayer ... Patiently abiding in prayer signifies a man's renunciation of himself. Therefore the self-denial of the soul turns into love for God.

God requires not the doing of the commandments for their own sake, but the correction of the soul, for whose sake He established the commandments.

Whoever hates his sins will stop sinning; and whoever confesses them will receive remission. A man can not abandon the habit of sin if he does not first gain enmity toward sin, nor can he receive remission of sin without confession of sin. For the confession of sin is the cause of true humility.