Prayer is the mind's dialogue with God, in which words of petition are uttered with the intellect riveted wholly on God. For when the mind unceasingly repeats the name of the Lord and the intellect gives its full attention to the invocation of the divine name, the light of the knowledge of God overshadows the entire soul like a luminous cloud.
Theoliptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia
On Inner Work in Christ, Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware, Faber and Faber pg. 181
Some praise life in a desert, others life in monasteries, still others a place of authority among people, to instruct and teach them and organise churches where many may find food for body and soul. I would not wish to give preference to any of these, nor to say that one is worthy of praise and another of censure. In all ways of life, blessed is the life lived for God and according to God in all actions and works.
St. Symeon the New Theologian
Practical and Theological Precepts no. 100, 11th century
There are... acts which in a special sense are called works of love. But, in truth, because one makes charitable contributions, because he visits the widow and clothes the naked - his love is not necessarily demonstrated or made recognizable by such deeds, for one can perform works of love in an unloving, yes, even in a self-loving way, and when this is so, the works of love are nevertheless not the work of love.
Soren Kierkegaard
Works of Love, Chapter 1; Harper Torchbooks pg. 30, 19th century