Sunday, September 16, 2007

wonder at your ignorance

"If you wish to be a person of understanding and moderation, and not to be slave to the passion of conceit, continually search among the created things for what is hidden from your knowledge. When you find that there are vast numbers of different things that escape your notice, you will wonder at your ignorance and abase your presumption. And when you have come to know yourself, you will understand many great and wonderful things; for to think that one knows prevents one from advancing in knowledge."

St Maximos the Confessor, Third Century on Love, 81, in the Philokalia