“It is only once you see the baffled expression on the face of your enemy when you give his cruel words a warm smile that you’ll understand, truly understand, what love is all about.”
― Vironika Tugaleva, The Love Mindset: An Unconventional Guide to Healing and Happiness
“If you take the ‘love your enemy’ out of Christianity, you’ve ‘unChristianed’ the Christian faith.”- Miroslav Volf
“A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men to their friends.” Joseph Hall
“Conquer men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of justice to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men. St. Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 64, “On Prayer, Prostrations, Tears, Reading, Silence, and Hymnody”
“Whoever will not love his enemies cannot know the Lord and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches us to love our enemies in such way that we pity their souls as if they were our own children.” St. Silouan the Athonite, Wisdom from Mount Athos: The Writings of Staretz Silouan, 1866-1938, I.11
“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” ― G.K. Chesterton
“When you have been insulted, cursed, or persecuted by someone, do not think of what has happened to you, but of what will come from it, and you will see that your insulter has become the cause of many benefits to you, not only in this age, but in that which is to come” — St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies, 1.114
“Whoever prays for those who hurt him lays the demons low; but he who opposes his affronter is bound to the demons.” St. Mark the Ascetic, “On the Spiritual Law: Two Hundred Texts” No. 45, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 1)
“To the extent that you pray with all your soul for the person who slanders you, God will make the truth known to those who have been scandalized by the slander. ” St. Maximos the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love 4.89, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 2)
Even if we perform upon thousands of good works, my brethren: fasts, prayers, almsgiving; even if we shed our blood for our Christ and we don’t have these two loves [love of God and love of brethren], but on the contrary have hatred and malice toward our brethren, all the good we have done is of the devil and we go to hell. But, you say, we go to hell despite all the good we do because of that little hatred? Yes, my brethren, because that hatred is the devil’s poison, and just as when we put a little yeast in a hundred pounds of flour it has such power that it causes all the dough to rise, so it is with hatred. It transforms all the good we have done into the devil’s poison. +St. Kosmas Aitolos, The Life of St. Kosmas Aitolos Together with an English Translation of His Teaching and Letters, Translated by Nomikos Michael Vaporis
Hilltop Thoughts, Valley Strengths 