For the One Maker fashioned us, the One Creator breathed life into us; we all enjoy the same sky and air, the same days and nights, and, though some be good, others bad, some righteous, others unrighteous, yet GOD is bountiful to all, kind to all.
St. Gregory the Dialogist
Sermon 12, On the Fast, 6th century
The example of the good Samaritan shows that we must not abandon those in whom even the faintest amount of faith is still alive.
St. Ambrose of Milan
Two Books of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Concerning Repentance, Chapter 11
Gentleness, then, is to be mingled with severity; a sort of compound is to be made of both; so that subjects be neither exulcerated by too much asperity, nor relaxed by too greatkindness.
St. Gregory the Dialogist
On the Life of the Pastor. Chapter 6, 6th century
Let us make our mercifulness abundant, let us give proof of much love to man, both by the use of our money, and by our actions. ... Go then, and put a stop to the evil; pull out them that are drowning, though you descend into the very depth of the surge.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 15 on Matthew 5, 4th Century
What is it that I love when I love you? Not the beauty of a body or the comeliness of time. Nor the luster of the light pleasing to the eyes, nor the sweet melodies of all manner of songs, nor the fragrance of flowers, ointments and spices, not manna and honey, nor limbs welcome to the embrace of the flesh - I do not love these when I love my God. And yet there is a kind of light, a kind of voice, a kind of fragrance, a kind of foods, a kind of embrace, when I love my God, who is the light, voice, fragrance, food, embrace of the inner man, where there shines into the soul that which no place can contain, and there sounds forth that which time cannot end, where there is fragrance which no breeze disperses, taste which eating does not make less, and a clinging together which fulfillment does not terminate. It is this that I love when I love my God.
St. Augustine
Confessions 10.6 in The Confessions of St. Augustine, p. 244, 5th century
The sign that thou lovest God, is this, that thou lovest thy fellow; and if thou hatest thy fellow, thy hatred is towards God. For it is blasphemy if thou prayest before God while thou art wroth. For thy heart also convicts thee, that in vain thou multipliest words: thy conscience rightly judges that in thy prayers thou profitest nought.
St. Ephraim the Syrian
ON ADMONITION AND REPENTANCE.
He who truly wishes to believe in God must be lifted above himself, his mind, and even the whole world. For this reason, the value of faith is considered higher than the value of man. It is even higher than the value of the whole world. Therefore, the reward of faith should be higher than all of man's possessions along with the glories of this world. The reward of faith is God.
Fr. Matthew the Poor
Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way, p. 74, 20th century
'The Lord your God is one Lord' (cf. Deut. 6:4), revealed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: in the unbegotten Father; in the Son, who is begotten eternally, timelessly and impassibly as the Logos, and who through Himself anointed that which He assumed from us and so is called Christ; and in the Holy Spirit, who also comes forth from the Father, not begotten, but proceeding. This alone is God and alone is true God, the one Lord in a Trinity of Hypostases, undivided in nature, will, glory, power, energy, and all the characteristics of divinity. Him alone shall you love and Him alone shall you worship with all your mind and with all your heart and with all your strength.
St. Gregory Palamas
A New Testament Decalogue no. 1, Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 323, 14th century