Athanasius of holy memory asked Pambo to come down from the desert to Alexandria. When Pambo arrived, he saw a woman that was an actress, and he wept.He said, "Two things grieved me. The first was her condemnation; the second, that I take less trouble pleasing God than she takes about pleasing the worst of mankind."
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.
Poemen said, "To be on guard, to meditate within, to judge with discernment: these are the three works of the soul."
It happened that Moses, who lived in Petra, was struggling with the temptation to fornication. Unable stay any longer in the cell, he went and told Isidore about it. He advised him to return to his cell. But he refused, saying, "Abba, I cannot."He looked and saw hordes of demons standing about and making a noise before launching an attack.
Then Isidore said to him, "Look towards the east."
Paphnutius is said to have seldom drunk wine but once on a journey he came upon a meeting place of robbers while they were drinking. The chief of the robber band recognized him and knew that he would no drink wine, but he saw that he was tired out. Paphnutius knew that the robber chieftain was trying to obey the commandment of God: and in his desire to help him, he took the cup and drank.
Then the robber chief did penance before him, and said, "I'm sorry, abba, that I grieved you."
The robber chieftain replied, "I believe in God and from now on I'll harm no one."
Some brothers came to a holy hermit who lived in the desert and outside the hermitage they found a boy tending the sheep and using uncouth words. He said, "Indeed, my brothers, there are days when I want to order them to stop it, but I hold myself back, saying, if I can't put up with this little thing, how shall I put up with serious temptation, if God ever lets me be so tempted? So, I say nothing to them, and try to get into the habit of bearing whatever happens."
Once Epiphanius the bishop from Cyprus sent a message to Hilarion, and asked him, "Come, let me see you before I die." Epiphanius said to him, "From the time I took the habit, I have let no one go to sleep who still had something against me, and I have never gone to sleep with an enemy in the world."
There was a bishop of the city of Oxyrhynchus called Affy. They said that while he was a monk, he treated his body very severely. When he became a bishop, he wanted to continue in his city the austerities that he had practiced in the desert, but he could not. 
A hermit once visited Mount Sinai. When he was going away, a brother met him, and groaned, saying, "Abba, we are afflicted by drought. There has been no rain."
They said of John the Short that he once made enough rope for two baskets, and twisted it all into one basket, but he did not see what he was doing until he tried to hang it up, for his mind was occupied in the contemplation of God.
Two brothers in a community lived a holy life, and had made such progress that they could see the grace of God in each other. It happened that one of them went out of the monastery on a Friday morning and saw a man eating. He said to him, "Why are you eating at this hour on a Friday?"
A provincial judge once wanted to see Poemen and he would not allow it. So the judge arrested Poemen's nephew as if he were a criminal and imprisoned him, saying, "I will release him when Poemen comes to ask about him."
Poemen said, "The character of the genuine monk only appears when he is tempted."
A brother asked Poemen, "What should I do?"
A brother was attacked by lust. He began to struggle and to fast more, and for fourteen years guarded himself against this temptation and did not give into it. After that, he went to the community and told them all what he was suffering. A decree was made, and for a week they all fasted on his behalf, praying to God continually; and so his temptation ceased.
Evagrius quoted a hermit as saying, "I cut away bodily pleasure in order to get rid of occasions for anger. I know that it is because of pleasure that I have to struggle with anger, my mind being disturbed, and my understanding dissolved."
One of the holy men named Philagrius lived in Jerusalem and worked hard to earn himself enough to eat. When he was standing in the market square trying to sell what he had made, a bag containing a great many coins fell on the ground near him by accident.
Poemen said, "The beginning of evil is to diversify the mind."
A brother asked a hermit, "Tell me somethng good that I may do it and live by it."
John said, "One day we went into Syria to see Poemen for we wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. But he did not know Greek and we did not have an interpreter. When he saw we were embarrassed, he began to speak in Greek, saying, 'The nature of water is soft, the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting the water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.'"
Some robbers once came to a hermitage and said, "We've come to take everything out of your cell."
They say of Ammon that some people asked him to arbitrate in their quarrel but the hermit took no notice of them. So, a woman said to her neighbor, "What a fool this hermit is!"
One of the hermits said, "There are some who do good, yet the devil insinuates a mean spirit into them, so that they lose the reward of all the good they do. Once when I was living in Oxyrhynchus with a priest who was generous in almsgiving, a widow came to ask him for a little barley."
Some of the brothers once came to test John the Short, to see if it was true that he never let his mind wander among earthly thoughts, and never spoke about worldly matters.
Agatho was asked, "Which is more difficult, bodily discipline or guard over the inner self?"
