Resultados25 letters/passages
isidore_pelusium · c. 418 · score 0.02
Authority and kingship, that which all men fight to possess, have taken away from many not only the good life, but often life itself. Let them therefore not consider this alone — whether failure attends those who pursue power — but let them also weigh whether the power they attain brings them happiness or misery. For h …
isidore_pelusium · c. 417 · score 0.02
People often dare things greater than pardon or punishment for the sake of money and power, and of yielding none of these to anyone. For wishing to acquire them...
isidore_pelusium · c. 408 · score 0.02
Therefore, as long as you refuse to embrace the sweat of labor, you must also abstain from the very name of rest. To Ausonios the Corrector. One must be lenient toward others offenses. The laws, having seized the man who insulted you, have delivered him into your hands to pay the penalty. But you — for you are superior …
isidore_pelusium · c. 419 · score 0.02
The one who not only defends those who are wronged, but also takes forethought so that no one may be wronged in the first place — this man would justly be called not merely an energetic ruler, but also a wise and just lawgiver. For the one quality belongs to the executive power of authority, and the other to the legisl …
isidore_pelusium · c. 398 · score 0.02
To Simplicius. We rejoice with the city over your rule, and we are glad to see justice now walking in the open and judging. For this you will have God as both helper and ally, who will both reveal the wicked and make the good manifest to you. For when rulers govern with justice, they become instruments of divine provid …
isidore_pelusium · c. 403 · score 0.02
To Theodore the Scholastic. There is a law established from of old and well confirmed, an unwritten law looking toward compassion: that the mighty in arms should yield to the suppliant, and that those who conquer in war should give way to pity. But you, as they say, respecting neither the innate laws nor the unwritten …
isidore_pelusium · c. 393 · score 0.01
The city rightly rejoices in the efforts of the just, displaying the blameless and seemly manner of piety. But those who despise it have none of the praiseworthy pursuits. Even if the divine will commands us to be perfect, the path to perfection is trodden one step at a time, and no one arrives at the summit without fi …
isidore_pelusium · c. 430 · score 0.01
On the preeminence of the priesthood. Formerly the priesthood corrected and disciplined the kingship when it erred, but now it has fallen under it — not because it has lost its own dignity, but because those entrusted with it are not like their predecessors. For formerly, when those crowned with the priesthood lived an …
isidore_pelusium · c. 432 · score 0.01
On the preeminence of the priesthood. Even if the priesthood is higher and more worthy than all kingship, those who have been allotted it must not exalt themselves against others on its account, but must consider gentleness combined with understanding to be its most fitting and appropriate adornment — reflecting that i …
isidore_pelusium · c. 398 · score 0.01
To the City Council. God still cares for Pelusium. The seed of piety still abides in her. The patron martyrs still watch over the wretched city. The admirable Simplicius has arrived, taking in hand the reins of governance. I announce to you another manner of life. Receive the man gladly, and recount to him all your dif …
isidore_pelusium · c. 434 · score 0.01
How old are you? Why do you rage so? Why do you transgress the boundaries of your desires...
isidore_pelusium · c. 414 · score 0.01
Nothing is so base as the intemperance of lust. Not gold, not silver, not clothing, not beauty, not food, not drink, not iron, not fire, not rage — nothing so degrades a person as does servitude to corrupt passion. For he who is seized by this malady, even if he possesses wealth and honor and authority, is more pitiabl …
isidore_pelusium · c. 391 · score 0.01
If these, then, are adorned with truth, they ought to be desirable to the prudent. But if they arm themselves against truth, they justly deserve to be dishonored. To Neidos. Since the height of humility is great, and the fall of arrogance precipitous, I counsel you to embrace the former and not to fall into the latter. …
isidore_pelusium · c. 434 · score 0.01
To Serenus the Tribune. That the glory of this world is like a day lily — that is, a flower blooming for scarcely a single day — while the fame of virtue is unfading and unending, anyone who is not without mind and prudence would affirm. And if many lay claim to the former while despising the latter, this is not surpri …
isidore_pelusium · c. 395 · score 0.01
To Eusebios the Bishop. That the priesthood is awe-inspiring and hard to attain. Desire for many things arises in many people, but it does not accord with their plans, since those things are unattainable. For not everyone who wishes attains kingship, nor wealth, nor the marriage he desires. If, therefore, as you say, Z …
isidore_pelusium · c. 400 · score 0.01
A certain man who was not only superior to shameful profits but also distributed his own property to those in need, having learned that he had received a few fish from someone who had sworn falsely, dared to release the man — as far as it depended on him — from his sin. Groaning deeply, he uttered that Demosthenic sayi …
isidore_pelusium · c. 422 · score 0.01
If you possess within yourself the treasure of virtues, do not seek it from others, but make use of your own storehouse. That heresies spring from love of power or from prejudice. Love of power is the cause of all evils, which, attempting to overturn even what is well established, has provoked terrible wars not only in …
isidore_pelusium · c. 430 · score 0.01
To Martinianus, Zosimus, Maron, and Eustathius. I have written to you collectively and individually, in tones both gentle and severe, with words both courteous and blunt, and none of it has produced the slightest effect. You continue in your scandalous behavior as though my letters were blank parchment and my words emp …
isidore_pelusium · c. 428 · score 0.01
To Eustathius the Monk. The monastic life is not a refuge from responsibility but a higher form of it. The monk who withdraws from the world in order to escape its demands has missed the point entirely, for the demands of the spiritual life are far more exacting than those of the secular. In the world, a man is judged …
isidore_pelusium · c. 427 · score 0.01
If the one who teaches does not practice what he teaches, he is like a signpost that points the way to a city it never enters. You, O distinguished scholar, possess the learning to know the right and the eloquence to commend it to others, yet your conduct falls short of your knowledge. This is a common failing among th …
isidore_pelusium · c. 430 · score 0.01
Wealth is nothing, O admirable one, even if it is great and flows in from every side; dignity is nothing, even if it is royal; wisdom is nothing, even if it is adorned with eloquence — unless hope in God is mixed with these things. For wealth is perishable when God does not approve it — it has often been uprooted even …
isidore_pelusium · c. 418 · score 0.01
I know, O temple of purity, that you are rightly troubled that Zosimus and Martinianos, Maron and Eustathius appear to serve as priests—men unapproachable and inaccessible to every virtue, yet who have made themselves a wide road and an open field for every vice. But you ought to know well that the greater the honor th …
isidore_pelusium · c. 401 · score 0.01
The grace of teaching is not given to all, and those to whom it is given must exercise it with fear and trembling. For the teacher will be judged more strictly than the student, since he bears responsibility not only for his own soul but for the souls of those he instructs. Woe to the teacher who leads his pupils astra …
isidore_pelusium · c. 433 · score 0.01
To Heron the Statesman. The art of governing is the art of balancing competing interests without sacrificing justice. The politician who seeks to please everyone pleases no one; the politician who seeks to please God pleases everyone who matters. Your constituents want prosperity, security, and freedom — but these cann …
isidore_pelusium · c. 407 · score 0.01
To Hermogenes the Bishop. Concerning what was commanded to the destroying angels: \"And begin from my holy ones.\" If those who have been crowned with the sanctity of the priesthood had an oracle to read saying that they need not toil and practice the virtues, but only teach by word, let them think as they think. But s …