The devil is not afraid of our minds or our knowledge; he has more of them.

The devil is not afraid of our minds or our knowledge; he has more of them. He is not even afraid of our virtues, for he has more of them as well. He only lacks one virtue, and its absence kills him while saving us. What is this virtue?
Once, having achieved something, I proudly went to my spiritual elder.
Seeing me, he immediately realized that I had slipped. Before I could say a word, he said:
'Why are we so proud, son? What are we proud of? That we fast and eat little? The devil fasts more than us,he never eats. That we don't sleep at night or that we don't sleep enough? The devil is more awake than us, he never sleeps. What do we abstain from? What do we preserve our virginity for? The devil is more virginal than us: even if he wanted to commit adultery, he wouldn't be able to, as he doesn't have a body.'
I could not believe my ears. No matter what virtues we possess, the devil also possesses them. No matter what virtues we acquire, we will never match the virtues the devil had when he was an archangel, and yet, he lost all of them.
Why? Because he lacked one virtue. We must strive to acquire this virtue in order to be saved. The devil overpowers us not only with sins; he overpowers us with virtues even more than with sins. We can see sins and avoid them, but we actively fight to acquire virtues.
As one saint said: 'Want to fast? The devil helps you. Want to give alms? The devil helps you. Want to build temples? The devil helps you. Why? Because he knows that if we achieve all this, we may become proud and destroy everything.'

We must possess the virtue that he does not have: to be humble!"

— Saint Nikon

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