St Theodoros the Great Ascetic: None the less I firmly maintain that a soul attached...

None the less I firmly maintain that a soul attached to wealth and praise cannot mount upwards. Equally I say that a soul loses all attachment to these things once it has practiced this triad* of ways sufficiently for it to have become habitual. 

For if the soul is persuaded that only the beauty which is beyond everything is to be regarded as truly beautiful, while of other things the most beautiful is that which is most like the supreme beauty, and so on down the scale, how can it relish silver, gold or fame, or any other degrading thing?

* Remembrance of God, Pursuit of Spiritual Knowledge, Bodily Asceticism

St Theodoros the Great Ascetic