Wish yourself a martyr’s death.  Blushing for shame you will be dragged before the public.  That is good for you, for he who is not publicly exposed like this before people will be publicly exposed before God.  Power streams forth when you are seen by men.
Maximilla 

Better to die for the sake of Jesus Christ than to be king over the utmost ends of the earth.
Ignatius 

The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.
John Chrysostom 

Emperors could only believe in Christ if they were not emperors — as if Christians could ever be emperors.
Tertullian 

We who formerly treasured money and possessions more than anything else now hand over everything we have to a treasury for all and share it with everyone who needs it.  We who formerly hated and murdered one another now live together and share the same table.  We pray for our enemies and try to win [...]

The divine banner and the human banner do not go together, nor the standard of Christ and the standard of the Devil.  Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished the sword.
 Tertullian 

Now we who once murdered one another not only refrain from all hatred of our enemies, we meet death cheerfully for confessing to Christ.
 Justin (same as before) 

We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war.  We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of GOD, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given [...]

Christians, instead of arming themselves with swords, extend their hands in prayer.
 St. Athanasius