Worldly Concerns

It is a sure sign that our heart is not perfect before God, and does not entirely rest in him, when, like the unconverted Athenians of old, we are anxious to hear or tell some new thing, when we are exceedingly troubled about our own reputation among men, and when in regard to anything of a worldly nature, we exhibit an eager and precipitate state of mind. 

— Religious Maxims (1846) XC.

O Blinded Ones!

Many, who do not love God with the whole heart, nevertheless say that they desire, that they wish so to love him. O, blinded ones! How can this possibly be, when they are so obviously unwilling to renounce the pursuits and pleasures of the world, by which God is offended and separated from them!

— Religious Maxims (1846) LXXXIV.

Renunciation of the World or of the Self?

It  may sometimes be practically important  to make a distinction between a renunciation of the world and a renunciation of ourselves. A man may, in a certain sense and to a certain extent, renounce the world, and. yet may find himself greatly disappointed in his anticipations of spiritual improvement and benefit. He has indeed renounced the world as it presents itself to us in its externalities; he has renounced its outward attractions; its perverted and idle shows. He may have carried his renouncement so far as to seclude himself entirely from society, and to spend his days in some solitary desert. But it avails nothing or almost nothing, because there is not at the same time an internal renunciation; a crucifixion and renunciation of self. A mere crucifixion of the outward world may still leave a vitality and luxuriance of the selfish principle; but a crucifixion of self necessarily involves the crucifixion, in the Scripture sense, of everything else.

— Religious Maxims (1846) XXII.