Letter 181: I reproach you sharply for this: the gratitude that was owed has died in you.
On extinguishing the love of money.
Those who wish to put out a fire do not heap on it material that readily catches alight, nor supply it with other fuel by which it grows and becomes unconquerable; rather, they make use of extinguishing agents and so quench the flame. If, then, you too wish to put out the furnace of avarice, hope to accomplish this easily by subtraction and not by addition; and the extinguishers of the love of money are almsgiving and the doing of good to those in need.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Οἱ πῦρ σβέσαι βουλόμενοι, οὐχ ὅλην εὐκατάπρηστον προστυθέασιν, οὐδὲ τροφὴν ἄλλην παρέχουσιν αὐτῷ, δι᾽ ἧς αὐξέταί τε καὶ ἀχείρωτον γίνεται, ἀλλὰ
σθεστηρίοις· χρώμενοι τὴν φλόγα καταπαύουσιν. Εἰ τοίνυν καὶ αὐτὸς βούλει τὴν τῆς φιλοχρηματίας σβέσαι κάμινον, τῇ ὑπεξαιρέσει, ἀλλὰ μὴ τῇ προσθήκῃ τοῦτο ῥᾳδίως ἀνύσειν ἔλπιζε· σβεστήρια δὲ φιλαργυρίας, ἐλεημοσύνη, καὶ ἡ τῶν δεομένων εὐεργεσία.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern isidore pelusium workflow v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
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