Letter 480: Wealth, Paul, does not belong to its possessor in the way that his virtues belong to him.
Know that it is not possible to endure the toils of virtue from beginning to end unless the expectation of rewards is gently mixed with the sweat, gradually sending one forward painlessly and lightly, and in a certain way with gladness, toward the completion of the contests. If, then, you should behold a man enduring the labors of virtue...
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
ΥΠ'. – ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ.
Ἴσθι, ὅτι τὸῖς τῆς ἀρετῆς πόνοις ἐκ πρώτης μέχρι
τελευτῆς ἐγκαρτερῆσαι οὐχ οἷόν τε, μὴ τῆς προσδο-
κίας τῶν γερῶν κιρναμένης ἡρέμα τῷ ἱδρῶτι, καὶ
κατὰ βραχὺ ἀλύπως τε καὶ κούφως, καὶ τρόπον
τινὰ μετ' εὐφροσύνης παραπεμπούσης ἐπὶ τὸ τῶν
ἀγώνων τέλος. Εἰ τοίνυν θεάσοιο ἄνθρωπον τοὺς
πόνους τῆς ἀρετῆς, τὰς τῆς τρυφῆς τοῖς ἐχέφροσιν
ἡδονὰς, φεύγοντα, ἴσθι ὅτι ἐλπὶς αὐτῷ χρηστὴ οὐκ
ἀνθεῖ.
Related Letters
It is good to do good to your friends.
It is good to do good to friends.
This much is enough for me: your holiness has testified that your anger was not the ill-temper of a man making much...
The things of this life are fleeting and shadowy.
The work of virtue is done slowly, Paul — so slowly that it sometimes seems nothing is happening.