About people who are governed.
The words of Philo, from the fourth book of his Allegorical Interpretation of the Sacred Laws.
If you take away their resources of wealth from politicians, you will find nothing left but empty arrogance devoid of sense, for as long as there is an abundant supply of external good things, wisdom and presence of mind appear also to attend them, but when that plenty is taken away all appearance of wisdom is taken away at the same time.
About the best men.
From the same author, in his Treatise on Drunkenness.
Good men, to speak somewhat metaphorically, are of more value than whole nations, since they support cities and constitutions as buttresses support large houses.
From the same author.
If it depended on wicked men, no city would ever enjoy tranquillity; but states continue free from seditious troubles on account of the righteousness of one or two men who live in them, whose virtue is a remedy for the diseases of war, because God, who loves mankind, grants this effect as a reward to those who are virtuous and honourable, so that they should not only benefit themselves, but all who are near them.
From the same author.
There is no place upon earth more sacred than the mind of a wise man, while all the virtues hover around like so many stars.
About things which are uncertain and unknown to us.
The words of Philo.
The comprehension of the future does not belong to the nature of man.
From the same author.
All things are not known to the mortal race.
From the same author.
God alone is acquainted with the ultimate results of things.
About evil report.
Quiet, which is free from danger, is better than words, the object of which is only to give pleasure.
About self-satisfied people, etc.
The words of Philo.
The lawgiver says, “You shall not do all the things which we will do here this day, {4}{deuteronomy 12:28.} every one doing that which is pleasant in his own sight,” by which words he declares as loudly as possible that there is no evil which may not be produced by selfishness and self-sufficiency, which must be eradicated from the mind as unholy feelings. Let no one embrace that which is pleasing to himself rather than that which is agreeable to nature, for the one is found to be the cause of mischief and the other the cause of benefit.
From the same author.
Those who do everything for their own sake alone practise selfishness, which is the greatest of evils, which produces unsociability, want of fellowship, unfriendliness, injustice, impiety, for nature has made man not like those beasts which love solitude, but like the gregarious beasts which live together like the most sociable of all creatures, that he may live not to himself alone, but also to his father, and to his mother, and to his brethren, and to his wife, and to his children, and to all his other relations and friends, and to those of the same borough as himself, and to those of the same tribe, and to his native country, and to his fellow countrymen, and to all mankind, and moreover to the different parts of the universe, and to the whole world, and much more to the Father and Creator of the world, for he must be (if at least he is really endowed with reason) sociable, loving the world, and loving God, that he may also be beloved by God.
About God being incomprehensible.
From the first book of the Questions arising in Exodus.
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