Letter 1105: Wealth is a tool, not a treasure.

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 our own time but also in ancient times. The Pythagoreans, having practiced silence, excommunicated those who prided themselves on eloquence. The Homerists mocked the Platonists, and the Platonists in turn derided the Homerists. The Stoics warred against the Epicureans, and the Epicureans against the Stoics. Each school thought itself wiser than the others, not from any genuine pursuit of truth, but from love of preeminence and the desire to prevail. And this same disease has infected the Church. For whenever someone wishes to be first and cannot bear to be second, he invents a novel doctrine to set himself apart, and draws disciples after himself not by the power of truth but by the charm of novelty. Hence the heresies, hence the schisms, hence the divisions that tear apart the seamless garment of Christ. The remedy is humility, which does not seek its own glory but the glory of God, and which is content to learn rather than to teach, to follow rather than to lead.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΑΡUM LIB. IV. τῶν ἀρετῶν, μὴ παρ᾿ ἄλλοις τοῦτο ζήτει (67), ἀλλὰ Α χρῶ τῷ οἰκείῳ θησαυρῷ. ΝΕ΄. – ΑΡΠΟΚΡΑ ΣΟΦΙΣΤΗ. "ὅτι ἀπὸ φιλαρχίας ἢ προλήψεων φύονται αἱρέσεις. Ἡ φιλαρχία ἁπάντων αἰτία τῶν κακῶν, ἢ καὶ τὰ καθεσθῶτα ἀνατρέπειν πειρωμένη, δεινοὺς πολέμους οὐ μόνον ἐφ' ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐπικωμάσαι παρεσκεύασεν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ Πυθαγόρειοι σιγὴν ἠσκηκότες, τοὺς μέγα φρονοῦντας ἐπὶ εὐγλωτ- τίᾳ ἀπεκήρυττον. Οἱ δὲ Ὁμηρίζοντες, τοὺς Πλατω- νίζοντας διέσυρον· οἱ δὲ Πλατωνίζοντες τοὺς Ὁμηρί- ζοντας ἀσεβείας ἐγράφοντο· καὶ οἱ μὲν ᾿Αριστοτελικοὶ πρὸς τοὺς Πλατωνίζοντας ἐπαπεδύσαντο · οἱ δὲ Στοῖ- B κοὶ πρὸς τοὺς ᾿Αριστοτελικοὺς ἐφράξαντο. Έπιχου- ρείων δὲ, τῶν τῇ κακίᾳ ἐπικουρῆσαι τολμησάντων, καὶ μεμνῆσθαι ἀτοπώτατον. Καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἰατρικῆς δὲ τὸ αὐτὸ ἐπηκολούθησαν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ Λογικοὶ τοὺς Μεθοδικοὺς (68) ἐστηλίτευσαν · οἱ δὲ Μεθοδικοὶ κατὰ τῶν Λογικῶν ἐφράξαντο. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ πολλὰς καὶ ποικίλας ῥίζας ἔφασαν τῶν παθῶν· διὸ καὶ ποικί- λοις ἐχρῶντο βοηθήμασι, τὰς ῥίζας πολυπραγμο- νοῦντες τῶν νοσημάτων, καὶ οὕτως ἀναστέλλοντες τὰς πηγὰς τῶν παθῶν. Οἱ δὲ δύο μόνας αἰτίας ὡρί- σαντο, στέγνωσιν καὶ ῥῦσιν· διὸ καὶ τὸ, ἢ κενωτέον, ἢ στακτέον, ἐδογμάτισαν. Οἱ δὲ Ἐμπειρικοὶ καὶ τού- τους κάκείνους ἔσκωπτον. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τὰς τῶν ῥητό- ρων, καὶ τὰς τῶν ποιητῶν, καὶ τὰς τῶν συγγραφέων πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαφορὰς εἰπεῖν ἐθελήσαιμι, πολὺς σ καὶ λόγος καὶ χρόνος ἀναλωθήσεται. Καὶ θαυμαστὸν οὐδέν. Ὅπου γὰρ οἱ φιλοσοφίας ὀνόματι βρενθυόμε- νοι οὐκ ἄχνησαν διαπρύσιον καθ' ἑαυτῶν κινῆσαι πόλεμον, σχολῇ γ᾽ ἂν τοῖς ῥήτορσι καὶ τοῖς ποιηταῖς ἐμέλησεν εἰρήνης, οἱ γε καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐγκράτειαν, καὶ δικαιοσύνην, καὶ σωφροσύνην ἐγκρίνοντας Σω- κρατικοὺς διεφέροντο, οὓς Πλάτων ἐκκωμῳδήσας ἐν διαλόγοις, ἀνεκωμῳδήθη παρὰ τῶν Κυνικῶν, ὧν εἷς ἦν καὶ Λουκιανὸς, ὁ τοὺς διαλόγους κατὰ πάντων ὁμοῦ σχεδὸν τῶν τε εἰρημένων, τῶν τε παραλελειμμένων συντάξας. ὧν οἱ μὲν Πλατωνι κοὶ (69), διὰ τὸ τοὺς παρὰ τῶν ποιητῶν ἀναπλα- σθέντας θεοὺς τεθεατρικέναι, ἀπεδέξαντο. Οἱ δὲ τῶν ποιητῶν τρόφιμοι δύσφημον ἀπεκάλεσαν · δεινῶς γὰρ τοὺς παρ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐκθειαζομένους θεοὺς ἐξεκω- D μῴδησε. Τις οὖν τολμήσει τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πρε