Letter 1086: Flatterers are not friends — they are parasites who feed on your vanity and disappear when your power fades.

To Athanasios. On the verse: "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye?" [Matthew 7:3] It seems to be a common affliction not only to be blind concerning one's own faults while seeing keenly the failings of those nearby, but also to furnish for oneself even excuses that do not exist, while sitting as a bitter and inexorable judge of the faults of others. But those who are truly freed from self-love, and who hold that justice must prevail, pass against themselves, when they sin, the very same verdict that they would bring against their neighbors; and they punish themselves the more through repentance, since they know that unchastened ruin awaits. For it was to cast us into this exact testing that Christ said: "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye?" For it is not fitting that the one who overlooks his own faults should be a bitter judge of others. ... he found no place [for it], though he sought it with tears. [fragmentary line, apparently an echo of Hebrews 12:17]

Εἰς τό· «Τί δὲ βλέπεις τὸ κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, τὴν δὲ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀφθαλμῷ δοκὸν οὐ κατανοεῖς; » Κοινὸν μὲν πάθος εἶναι δοκεῖ, οὐ μόνον τὸ τυφλῶττειν μὲν περὶ τὰ ἴδια, ὀξέως δ’ ὁρᾷν τὰ τῶν πέλας πταίσματα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῖς μὲν καὶ τὰς οὐκ οὔσας (2) ἀπολογίας πορίζεσθαι, τὸ δ’ ἀλλοτρίων (3) πικροὶ καὶ ἀπαραίτητοι καθῆσθαι δικασταί. Οἱ δὲ τῷ ὄντι φυλαυτίας ἀπηλλαγμένοι, καὶ τὸ δίκαιον οἰόμενοι δεῖν κρατεῖν, τὴν αὐτὴν φέρουσι καθ’ ἑαυτῶν ἁμαρτάνοντες ψῆφον, ἥνπερ ἂν καὶ κατὰ τὰς πέλας ἐνέγκοιεν· καὶ μᾶλλον ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τῆς μετανοίας κολάζουσι, τὸν ἀκόλαστον ὄλεθρον εἰδότες (3’). Εἰς ταύτην γὰρ ἡμᾶς τὴν ἀκριβῆ βάσανον ἐμβάλλων ὁ Χριστὸς, ἔφη· «Τί βλέπεις τὸ κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου· τὴν δὲ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀφθαλμῷ δοκὸν οὐ κατανοεῖς; » Οὐ γὰρ προσήκει τῶν ἄλλων εἶναι πικρὸν δικαστὴν τὸν τὰ οἰκεῖα παρορῶντα. τόπον οὐχ εὗρε, καίπερ μετὰ δακρύων ἐκζη- τήσας αὐτήν.