Letter 465: Envy, Epiphanos, is remarkable among the vices for this: it punishes its possessor more reliably than it punishes...

To Epiphanos. Since, wishing perhaps to show that courage in war is superior to worldly wisdom, you walled us off with the rhetorician who declares: "By as much as the open is better than the secret, and to accomplish anything whatsoever as victors rather than by trickery is more honorable, by so much more nobly did Conon set up the walls than Themistocles. For the one [Themistocles] acted by stealth, while the other [Conon] did these things by conquering those who hindered" [the reference is to the rebuilding of the long walls of Athens]— I say this: that we for our part accept neither the one nor the other; rather, the former [worldly wisdom], if it be not adorned with divine instruction, we consider to be nothing, and the latter [martial courage] we condemn. For we have learned to be wronged, not to do wrong. But courage we consider to be the disdain of hardships, and the noble bearing of whatever befalls. And if one must also say something to the rhetorician, I would say: But the man who prevailed by wisdom, O best of rhetoricians, was plainly one who, even had he been victorious had it so happened, would have prevailed in a greater war by waging it; whereas the man who conquered by courage was plainly one who, had he prevailed by wisdom, would have been worsted in arms.

Ἐπειδὴ δεῖξαι ἴσως βουλόμενος τῆς σοφίας τῆς κοσμικῆς κρείττονα τὴν ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἀνδρείαν, ἀπετείχισας ἡμῖν τὸν ῥήτορα φάσκοντα· Ὅσῳ τὸ φανερῶς τοῦ λάθρα κρεῖττον, καὶ τὸ νικῶντας ἢ παρακρουσαμένους πράττειν ὁτιοῦν ἐντιμότερον, τοσούτῳ κάλλιον Κόνωνα τὰ τείχη στῆσαι Θεμιστοκλέους. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ λαθών, ὁ δὲ νικήσας τοὺς κωλύσαντας ταῦτα ἐποίησεν. Ἐκεῖνο φημί, ὅτι μάλιστα μὲν οὔτε ταύτην, οὔτε ἐκείνην ἀποδεχόμεθα· ἀλλὰ τὴν μέν, εἰ μὴ κοσμηθείη τῇ θείᾳ παιδεύσει, οὐδὲν εἶναι ἡγούμεθα · τὴν δὲ κακίζομεν. Ἀδικεῖσθαι γάρ, οὐκ ἀδικεῖν μεμαθήκαμεν. Ἀνδρείαν δὲ ἡγούμεθα, τὴν κατὰ τῶν δυσχερῶν ὑπεροψίαν, καὶ τὸ γενναῖον φέρειν τὰ συμβαίνοντα. Εἰ δὲ χρή τι καὶ πρὸς τὸν ῥήτορα εἰπεῖν, εἴποιμ’ ἄν· Ἀλλ’ ὁ σοφίᾳ περιγενόμενος, ὦ ῥητόρων ἄριστε, δῆλος ἦν ὅτι καὶ νικήσας, εἰ συνέβη, πολεμῶν περιγένετ’ ἂν μείζονος· ὁ δὲ ἀνδρείᾳ κρατήσας δῆλος ἦν, εἰ σοφίᾳ περιγένετο τοῖς ὅπλοις ἡττηθείς.