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1. Antony said, ‘Fish die if they stay on dry land, and in the same way monks who stay outside their cell or remain with secular people fall away from their vow of quiet. As a fish must return to the sea, so must we to our cell, in case by staying outside, we forget to watch inside.’
2. Antony said, ‘He who sits alone and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, seeing: but there is one thing against which he must continually fight: that is, his own heart.’
3. Arsenius when he was still in the palace, prayed to God, saying, ‘Lord, show me the way of salvation.’ A voice came to him saying, ‘Arsenius, flee from men, and you will be saved.’ As he left for the monastic life, he prayed again, saying the same words; and he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the roots of sinlessness.’
4. Archbishop Theophilus of blessed memory once came with a certain judge to see Arsenius. The archbishop questioned Arsenius, wanting to hear some wisdom from him. For a while the hermit was silent, and then he replied, ‘If I tell you something, will you do it?’ They promised that they would. So he said to them, ‘Wherever you hear Arsenius is, do not go there.’ Another time the archbishop wanted to see him, and sent a message first to ask if he would open the door to him. He sent a message back saying, ‘If you come here, I will open the door to you. But if I have opened the door to you, I must open it to all, and then I shall no longer be able to live here.’ When he heard this, the archbishop said, ‘Since my visit upsets him, I will not go to see the holy man again.’
5. Once Arsenius came to a place where there was a bed of reeds shaken by the wind. He said to the brothers, ‘What is this rustling noise?’ They said, ‘It is the reeds.’ He said to them, ‘If a man sits in silence and hears the voice of a bird, he does not have quiet in his heart; how much more difficult is it for you, who hear the sound of these reeds?’
6. They also said of him that his cell was thirty miles away, and that he did not leave it readily, but others did his errands. But when the monks were driven out of the place called Scetis, he went away weeping, saying, ‘The world destroyed Rome, and the monks Scetis.’
7. Once when Arsenius was living in Canopus, a virgin, a very rich lady, and one that feared God, came from Rome hoping to see him. Theophilus the archbishop received her. She asked him to arrange with Arsenius for him to meet her. Theophilus went to Arsenius and said, ‘A lady has come from Rome and she wants to see you.’ Arsenius refused to receive her. When the lady heard this she gave orders for her camels to be saddled and said, ‘I believe that with the help of God I will see him. In my city of Rome there are many people to see but I have come here in order to see saints.’ When she reached the hermit’s cell by the providence of God he was standing outside it. When the lady saw him she fell at his feet. He helped her up with indignation and looking directly at her said, ‘If you want to see my face, look closely; here it is.’ But she was too ashamed to raise her eyes. Arsenius said to her, ‘Haven’t you heard about my way of life? That is what you should be trying to see. Why have you dared to come all this way across the sea; you are a woman and ought not to be going about at all. Have you done this so that you can to back to Rome and say to the other women, “I have seen Arsenius”? In that way you will turn the sea into a highway with women coming to see me.’ She said, ‘If by God’s will I return to Rome, I will not let any other women come here. But pray for me, and remember me always.’ He replied, ‘I pray God that He will blot the memory of you from my heart.’ When she heard that, she went away in distress. When she got back to Alexandria, she began in her sorrow to be ill of a fever. The archbishop was told that she was ill, and came to comfort her. He asked her what was the matter. She said, ‘I wish I had never come here. I said to Arsenius, “remember me” and he said, “I pray God that your memory may be blotted from my heart”, and now I am dying of sorrow.’ The archbishop said to her, ‘Do you not realize that you are a woman, and the enemy uses women to attack holy men? That is why he said what he did. He prays for your soul all the time.’ So her worry was resolved, and she returned contentedly to her home.
8. Evagrius said, ‘Cut the desire for many things out of your heart and so prevent your mind being dispersed and your stillness lost.’
9. In Scetis a brother went to Moses to ask for advice. He said to him, ‘Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.’
10. Moses said, ‘One who avoids others is like a ripe grape. One who stays in company is like a sour grape.’
11. Nilus said, ‘The arrows of the enemy cannot touch someone who loves quiet. But those who wander about among crowds will often be wounded by them.’
12. Poemen said, ‘The beginning of evil is to diversify the mind.’ He said also, ‘It is good to flee from the things of the body. When a man is engaged in conflict about the body, he is like a man standing on the very edge of a deep pool, into which his enemy can knock him the moment he sees him. But when he has put aside bodily things, he is like a man standing a long way from the pool, where, if the enemy drags him along to throw him in, God will help him while he is being dragged there.’
13. Once Abraham, the disciple of Sisois, said to him, ‘Abba, you are now old. Let us go into the world for a short time.’ Sisois said to him: ‘Yes, provided that we go where there are no women.’ The disciple said, ‘Where is there a place that is without women except the desert?’ Sisois said, ‘Then let me stay in the desert.’
14. Matrona said, ‘Many solitaries living in the desert have been lost because they lived like people in the world. It is better to live in a crowd and want to live a solitary life than to live in solitude and be longing all the time for company.’
15. A hermit said, ‘A monk should buy himself quiet and therefore be able to despise any bodily expense that may occur.’
16. This story was told: There were three friends, serious men, who became monks. One of them chose to make peace between men who were at odds, as it is written, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ (Matt. 5:9). The second chose to visit the sick. The third chose to go away to be quiet in solitude. Now the first, toiling among contentions, was not able to settle all quarrels and, overcome with weariness, he went to him who tended the sick, and found him also failing in spirit and unable to carry out his purpose. So the two went away to see him who had withdrawn into the desert, and they told him their troubles. They asked him to tell them how he himself had fared. He was silent for a while, and then poured water into a vessel and said, ‘Look at the water,’ and it was murky. After a little while he said again, ‘See now, how clear the water has become.’ As they looked into the water they saw their own faces, as in a mirror. Then he said to them, ‘So it is with anyone who lives in a crowd; because of the turbulence, he does not see his sins: but when he has been quiet, above all in solitude, then he recognizes his own faults.’