Letter 80: Procopius says Phaedrus's letter reads like a father's letter and will not make him despise home.

Words really are images of the soul. They show how absent people stand in judgment no less than a painter shows whatever he wishes to imitate. When I encountered your letter, I seemed to have before me a man whom I had not known by experience. If someone had removed the heading and handed me the letter, I would have thought the writing came from an affectionate father to a child. Virtue seems to show its pupils in just this form. You had not seen me or tested me, yet you began the conversation and made the good things before you common with me. What praise would you not justly receive for that? Still, whatever happens, I have chosen not to despise my own Ithaca. I even envy Homer's Odysseus for this, that he looked past everything and longed for his little island, one that no one would mention among the best.

Φαίδρωι Ὄντως ἄρα τῆς ψυχῆς εἰκόνες ἦσαν οἱ λόγοι καὶ τοὺς ἀπόντας ἔδειξαν ὅπως ἔχουσι γνώμης, οὐχ ἧττον ἢ ζωγράφος ἅπερ ἂν ἐθέλῃ μιμεῖσθαι. τοῖς γὰρ ὑμετέροις γράμμασιν ἐντυχών, ὃν ἠγνόουν τῇ πείρᾳ, τοῦτον ἐκεῖνον ἔχειν ἐδόκουν, ὡς εἴ τις ἐξελὼν τὸ πρόγραμμα τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἐπεδίδου, ᾤμην ἂν πατρὸς εἶναι φιλοστόργου πρὸς παῖδα τὰ γράμματα. τοιούτους ἡ ἀρετὴ τοὺς ἑαυτῆς ἔοικε τροφίμους δεικνύναι. τὸ γάρ σε μήτε ἰδόντα μήτε πεπειραμένον καὶ λόγου προκατάρχειν καὶ κοινὰ πρός με ποιεῖσθαι τὰ παρόντα τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τίνος εὐφημίας οὐκ ἂν τύχοι δικαίως; ἀλλ' ὅμως προῄρημαι μηδ' ἂν εἴ τι γένοιτο τὴν ἐμὴν Ἰθάκην ὑπεριδεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν Ὁμηρικὸν Ὀδυσσέα διὰ ταῦτα ζηλῶ, ὅτι πάντα παριδὼν τὴν μικρὰν ἐπόθει νῆσον καὶ ἧς οὐκ ἄν τις ἐπὶ βελτίστοις ἐμνήσθη.