Letter 86: Among true Christians alone — those who genuinely deserve the name, for one should not judge the faith by the...
To Heraclides.
On the theme that nothing is higher than virtue.
The lineage of one's seed and the boasting of one's blood, my excellent friend, are not the makings of those whose true possession is virtue, but rather a kind of involuntary succession, drawn down and flowing from bodies. Virtue, however, is prudence, and justice, and courage, and temperance. Whoever holds fast to these is both wholly beautiful and admired by all, and falls short of nothing where the good life is concerned.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
«Ὅτι οὐδὲν ἀρετῆς ὑψηλότερον.»
Σπέρματος γένος, καὶ αἵματος κόμπος, ὦ ἄριστε, [τῶν] ποιητῶν οὗς ἐστιν ἀρετή, ἀλλ’ ἀκούσιος τις διαδοχὴ ἐξ σωμάτων καταγομένη καὶ ῥέουσα. Ἀρετὴ δὲ, φρόνησίς ἐστι, δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἀνδρεία, καὶ σωφροσύνη. Ὃς ἂν ἔχηται τούτων, καὶ πάγκαλός ἐστι, καὶ περίβλεπτος, καὶ οὐδενὸς πρὸς εὐζωίαν λειπόμενος.
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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