Letter 1542

From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk To: An unnamed person Date: ~410 AD Context: Isidore holds up ancient Sparta as a model of discipline, contrasting it with the corruption of luxury in his own day. I greatly admire ancient Sparta — a city adorned with honor, whose mothers forbade ornament so that the men they raised would shine by their deeds and not by their dress. They understood that the true beauty of a city is not its gilded columns but the character of its citizens. What comes from lawless wealth is not honor but its image — a glittering shell over an empty center. True nobility does not look like nobility; it is. And true virtue does not need advertisement; it is recognized by those who have eyes to see it. I am not surprised that a city which prized frugality above all produced men that the whole world could not break.

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