Almsgiving above all else requires money, but even this shines with a brighter luster when the alms are given from our poverty. The widow who paid in the two mites was poorer than any human, but she outdid them all.

Wine was given us by God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober. It is the best medicine when it has the best moderation to direct it. Wine was given to restore the body's weakness, not to overturn the soul's strength.

Feet were made, not given for dancing, but to walk modestly, not to leap impudently like camels.

It is certainly a greater and more wonderful work to change the minds of enemies, bringing about a change of soul, than to kill them.

The drunken man is a living corpse.

Men have the power of thinking that they may avoid sin.

For if you change from inhumanity to alms giving, you have stretched fourth the hand that was withered. If you withdraw from theaters and go to church, you have cured the lame foot. If you draw back your eyes from a harlot ... you have opened them when they were blind ... These are the greatest miracles.