Letter 751

To the same person. Nothing is so accustomed to produce good cheer and gladness as the teachings of true philosophy [here the ascetic, contemplative life], so as to look down upon all the things that are seen, and to be agape, that is to say, for those eternal goods that are to come, by reckoning that nothing human is secure -- not health, not vigor, not bodily strength, not fleshly good cheer, not wealth, not power, not honors and delights, and the rest.

Οὐδὲν οὕτως εὐθυμίαν καὶ εὐφροσύνην ἐμποιεῖν εἴωθεν, ὡς τὰ τῆς ἀληθινῆς φιλοσοφίας δόγματα, ὥστε τῶν βλεπομένων πάντων πραγμάτων ὑπερορᾶν, καὶ πρὸς τὰ αἰώνια ἀγαθὰ ἐκεῖνα τὰ μέλλοντα δηλαδὴ κεχηκέναι, τῷ μηδὲν τῶν ἀνθρώπινων νομίζειν βέβαιον εἶναι, μὴ ὑγείαν, μὴ εὐρωστίαν, μὴ δύναμιν σώματος, μὴ εὐθυμίαν σαρκικὴν, μὴ πλοῦτον, μὴ δυναστείαν, μὴ τιμὰς καὶ τέρψεις, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.