If I abstain from indulging my foolish desires, I praise myself vaingloriously. If I succeed in vigilance, I fall into the snare of conceit and contradiction. If I refrain from eating, I drown in pride and arrogance. If I am wakeful in prayer, I am vanquished by irritability and wrath. If I see virtue in someone, I studiously avoid him. -- St. Ephrem the Syrian *A Spiritual Psalter* #55 [A theologian of a cross calls a things what it is!]
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