From The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus:

"We should love the Lord as do our friends. Many a time I have seen people bring grief to God, without being bothered about it, and I have seen these very same people resort to every device, plan, pressure, plea from themselves and friends, and every gift, simply to restore an old relationship upset by some monir grievance."

"[L]et no one tell me…that because of his addiction to pleasure he must be excused for remaining stuck in his sin. The more the putrefaction, the greater the need for treatment, if the uncleanness is to be done away with, for the healthy do not make their way to the doctor’s surgery."

"If you truly love God and long to reach the kingdom that is to come, if you are truly pained by your failings and are mindful of punishment and of the eternal judgment, if you are truly afraid to die, then it will not be possible to have an attachment, or anxiety, or concern for money, for possessions, for family relationships, for wordly glory, for love and brotherhood, indeed for anything of earth. All worry about one’s condition, even for one’s body, will be pushed aside as hateful. Stripped of all thought of these, caring nothing about them, one will return freely to Christ. One will look to heav and to the help coming from there, as in the scriptural sayings: ‘I will cling close to you" (Psalm 62:9) and ‘I have not grown tired of following you nor have I longed for the day or the rest that man gives’ (Jeremiah 17:16)."