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← Works of St John Cassian (Institutes, Conferences, On the Incarnation)↑ The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults

Chapter XVI. How useless is the retirement of those who do not give up their bad manners.

Works of St John Cassian (Institutes, Conferences, On the Incarnation) · Saint John Cassian

How useless is the retirement of those who do not give up their bad manners.

Cassian 1.173.1

Sometimes when we have been overcome by pride or impatience, and we want to improve our rough and bearish manners, we complain that we require solitude, as if we should find the virtue of patience there where nobody provokes us: and we apologize for our carelessness, and say that the reason of our disturbance does not spring from our own impatience, but from the fault of our brethren. And while we lay the blame of our fault on others, we shall never be able to reach the goal of patience and perfection.

Cassian 1.173.2