"For what purpose was she espoused? In order that the spoiler might not learn the mystery prematurely. For that the King was to come by a virgin, was a fact known to the wicked one. ... Wherefore the Lord came by an espoused virgin, in order to elude the notice of the wicked one."

“There is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent.”

“How great is the envy which follows a man from his neighbours, like the sting of a wicked spirit... he who receives it, and takes it as it were into his breast, has nothing else but to eat his own heart, and tear it, and consume both soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune of others.”

“If wisdom follows knowledge, so troubles attend on wisdom.”

“Hail, thou that are highly favoured! The Lord is with you. No longer shall the devil be against you; for where of old that adversary inflicted the wound, there now first of all does the Physician apply the salve of deliverance. Where death came forth, there has life now prepared its entrance. By a woman came the flood of our ills, and by a woman also our blessings have their spring.”

“As Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword, so also is the devil, who has been the father of death, put to rout through death ; and he finds that the selfsame thing which he was wont to use as the ready weapon of his deceit, has become the mighty instrument of his own destruction. Yea, if we may so speak, casting his hook at the Godhead, and seizing the wonted enjoyment of the baited pleasure, he is himself manifestly caught while he deems himself the captor, and discovers that in place of the man he has touched the God.”

“For the most part, righteousness of life leads a man to poverty.”