Clement Of Alexandria Quotes & Sayings

There is one river of Truth which receives tributaries from every side. — Clement Of Alexandria

But by no manner of means are women to be allotted to uncover and exhibit any part of their person, lest both fall,-the men by being excited to look, they by drawing on themselves the eyes of the men. — Clement Of Alexandria

The Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God. — Clement Of Alexandria

If God rewarded the righteous immediately, we would soon be engaged in business, not godliness ... we would be pursuing not piety,but profit. — Clement Of Alexandria

When you see your brother, you see God. — Clement Of Alexandria

For philosophy is the study of wisdom, and wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and their causes." Wisdom is therefore queen of philosophy, as philosophy is of preparatory culture. For if philosophy "professes control of the tongue, and the belly, and the parts below the belly, it is to be chosen on its own account. But it appears more worthy of respect and pre-eminence, if cultivated for the honour and knowledge of God. — Clement Of Alexandria

Those who have castrated themselves from all sin for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, are blessed; they abstain from the world. — Clement Of Alexandria

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes. — Clement Of Alexandria

For why should not the wine of their own country satisfy men's desires, unless they were to import water also, like the foolish Persian kings? — Clement Of Alexandria

When the two shall be one, the outside as the inside, and the male and the female neither male nor female. — Clement Of Alexandria

And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, expressly writes: 'For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek.' — Clement Of Alexandria

The Lord ate from a common bowl, and asked the disciples to sit on the grass. He washed their feet, with a towel wrapped around His waist - He, who is the Lord of the universe! — Clement Of Alexandria

He alone can remit sins who is appointed our Master by the Father of all; He only is able to discern obedience from disobedience. — Clement Of Alexandria

Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, if order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings. — Clement Of Alexandria

What does God think of spurious beauty, rejecting utterly as He does all falsehood? — Clement Of Alexandria

'Eat my flesh,' Jesus says, 'and drink my blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children — Clement Of Alexandria

Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she isa woman. — Clement Of Alexandria

If in this life there are so many ways for purification and repentance, how much more should there be after death! The purification of souls, when separated from the body, will be easier. We can set no limits to the agency of the Redeemer; to redeem, to rescue, to discipline, is his work, and so will he continue to operate after this life. — Clement Of Alexandria

But the art of sophistry, which the Greeks cultivated, is a fantastic power, which makes false opinions like true by means of words. For it produces rhetoric in order to persuasion, and disputation for wrangling. These arts, therefore, if not conjoined with philosophy, will be injurious to every one. — Clement Of Alexandria

The law itself exhibits justice and teaches wisdom by abstinence from sensible images and by calling out to the Maker and Father of the universe. — Clement Of Alexandria

The Perfect Person's Rule of Life:
The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward.
The perfect person does good through love.
His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does.
He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward.
The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God. — Clement Of Alexandria

It is absolutely impossible at the same time to be a man of understanding and not to be ashamed to gratify the body. — Clement Of Alexandria

We must not cast away riches which can benefit our neighbor. Possessions were made to be possessed; goods are called goods because they do good, and they have been provided by God for the good of men: they are at hand and serve as the material, the instruments for a good use in the hand of him who knows how to use them. — Clement Of Alexandria

When lies have been accepted for some time, the truth always astounds with an air of novelty. — Clement Of Alexandria

Those who glory in their looks - not in their hearts - dress to please others. — Clement Of Alexandria

Now the images and temples constructed by mechanics are made of inert matter, so that they too are inert, material, and profane. Even if you perfect the art, it partakes of mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be sacred and divine. — Clement Of Alexandria

Do not think that we say that these things are only to be received by faith, but also that they are to be asserted by reason. For indeed it is not safe to commit these things to bare faith without reason, since assuredly truth cannot be without reason. — Clement Of Alexandria

One speaks in one way of the truth, in another way the truth interprets itself. The guessing at truth is one thing, and truth itself is another. Resemblance is one thing, the thing itself is another. And the one results from learning and practice, the other from power and faith. For the teaching of piety is a gift, but faith is grace. For by doing the will of God we know the will of God. — Clement Of Alexandria

For, in a word, if one thinks himself made beautiful by gold, he is inferior to gold; and he that is inferior to gold is not lord of it. — Clement Of Alexandria

Our superintendence in instruction and discipline is the office of the Word, from whom we learn frugality and humility, and all that pertains to love of truth, love of humanity, and love of excellence. And so, in a word, being assimilated to God by participation in moral excellence, we must not retrograde into carelessness and sloth. But labor, and faint not. — Clement Of Alexandria

Above all Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings. — Clement Of Alexandria

Prayer is happy company with God. — Clement Of Alexandria

It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify, but your soul, adorning it with good works. — Clement Of Alexandria

Prayer that runs its course till the last day of life needs a strong and tranquil soul. — Clement Of Alexandria

I call him truly learned who brings everything to bear on the truth, so that from geometry, music, grammar, and philosophy itself, culling what is usefule, he guards the faith against assault. — Clement Of Alexandria

He who prohibited the making of a graven image would never himself have made an image in the likeness of holy things [i.e., by creating an image of them here on earth]. Nor is there at all any composite thing or creature endowed with sensation [made by God here on earth] like those in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, the wings are the lofty ministers and energies of powers right and left, and the voice is delightful glory in endless contemplation. — Clement Of Alexandria

If you enroll as one of God's people, then heaven is your country and God your lawgiver. — Clement Of Alexandria

GOD became man so that we in our turn may become God. — Clement Of Alexandria

The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise. — Clement Of Alexandria

Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God. — Clement Of Alexandria

His Son Jesus, the Word of God, is our Instructor ... He is God and Creator. — Clement Of Alexandria

For, in truth, an image is only dead matter shaped by the craftsman's hand. But we have no sensible image of sensible matter, but an image that is perceived by the mind alone: God, who alone is truly God. — Clement Of Alexandria

We must not, then, aspire to please the multitude. For we do not practice what will please them, but what we know is remote from their disposition. "Let us not be desirous of vainglory," says the apostle, "provoking one another, envying one another. — Clement Of Alexandria

And Pythagoras is reported to have been a disciple of Sonches the Egyptian arch-prophet; and Plato, of Sechnuphis of Heliopolis; and Eudoxus, of Cnidius of Konuphis, who was also an Egyptian.
[Stromata, 1.15] — Clement Of Alexandria

The purified righteous man has become a coin of the Lord, and has the impress of his King stamped upon him. — Clement Of Alexandria

Above all, men are beguiled who are either bewitched by pleasure or terrified by fear. And all these are voluntary changes, but by none of these will knowledge ever be attained. — Clement Of Alexandria

We say that knowledge is not mere talk, but a certain divine knowledge, that light which is kindled in the soul as a result of obedience to the commandments, and which reveals all that is in a state of becoming, enables man to know himself and teaches him to become possessed of God. — Clement Of Alexandria

I think that one must approach the Logos Savior, not induced by the fear of punishment and not in the expectation of some kind of a reward, but primarily for the sake of the good in itself. Such will stand on the right in the sanctuary. — Clement Of Alexandria

But it is with a different kind of spell that art deludes you ... it leads you to pay religious honor and worship to images and pictures. — Clement Of Alexandria

He changed sunset into sunrise. — Clement Of Alexandria

Just as God's will is creation and is called 'the world' so His intention is the salvation of men, and it is called 'the Church.' — Clement Of Alexandria

All our life is like a day of celebration for us; we are convinced, in fact, that God is always everywhere. We work while singing, we sail while reciting hymns, we accomplish all other occupations of life while praying. — Clement Of Alexandria

We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly. — Clement Of Alexandria

Explain the Scriptures by the Scriptures. — Clement Of Alexandria

It is far better to be happy than to have our bodies act as graveyards to animals. — Clement Of Alexandria