How we too may overcome pride. And so we can escape the snare of this most evil spirit, if in the case of every virtue in which we feel that we make progress, we say these words of the Apostle: “Not I, but the grace of God with me,” and “by the grace of God I am what I am;” and “it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” As the author of our salvation Himself also says: “If a man abide in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” And “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” And “Vain is it for you to rise up before light.” For “it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.”
John Cassian, The Works of John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. › Book XII. Of the Spirit of Pride. › Chapter IX. How we too may overcome pride.
Scripture anchor 1 Corinthians 15:10, John 15:5, Philippians 2:13, Psalm 127:1, Romans 9:16
Why it is here
Psalm 127:1 ('except the Lord build the house') and John 15:5 ('without me ye can do nothing') — both cell anchors, both cited — in Cassian's remedy for pride: every advance in a virtue is confessed as grace. The root under the whole cell: the house is built by the Lord or in vain. Short enough to quote whole.