From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: An unnamed person
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore lays out what he considers the truest rule of friendship — simplicity of intention, speech, and life.
I consider the truest rule of friendship to be the one who agrees with his brothers without making excuses, who neither gains friendships through flattery nor conducts his enmities in secret — but who keeps his soul naked before everyone: simple in his intention, simple in his speech, and still more simple in his life.
Three kinds of simplicity are required — and each is a little harder than the last. Simple intention means no hidden agenda. Simple speech means saying what you actually think. Simple life means living consistently with both. The man who has all three has nothing to hide, and therefore nothing to manage. This is why such a man's friendships are real: they require no maintenance, because there is no performance to sustain.
Context:Isidore lays out what he considers the truest rule of friendship — simplicity of intention, speech, and life.
I consider the truest rule of friendship to be the one who agrees with his brothers without making excuses, who neither gains friendships through flattery nor conducts his enmities in secret — but who keeps his soul naked before everyone: simple in his intention, simple in his speech, and still more simple in his life.
Three kinds of simplicity are required — and each is a little harder than the last. Simple intention means no hidden agenda. Simple speech means saying what you actually think. Simple life means living consistently with both. The man who has all three has nothing to hide, and therefore nothing to manage. This is why such a man's friendships are real: they require no maintenance, because there is no performance to sustain.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.