From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Abba John the Dwarf said, 'He who gorges himself and talks with a boy has already in his thought committed fornication with him.'

Abba John the Dwarf said, 'If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy's city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh: if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak.'

Abba Isidore the Priest said that for forty years he had been tempted to sin in thought but that he had never consented either to covetousness or to anger.