Writings

Learn, O you who are about to die, to show yourself good to all. Why, in the midst of the people, do you make yourself to be other than you are? You go where you know not, and ignorantly thence you depart. You manage wickedly with your very body; you thirst always after riches. You exalt yourself too much on high; and you bear pride, and do not willingly look on the poor. Now you do not even feed your parents themselves when placed under you. Ah, wretched men, let ordinary men flee far from you.

He lived, and I have destroyed him; the poor man cries out εὕρηκα. By and by you shall be driven with the furies of Charybdis, when you yourself perish. Thus you rich men are undisciplined, you give a law to those, you yourselves not being prepared. Strip yourself, O rich man turned away from God, of such evils, if assuredly, perchance, what you have seen done may aid you. Be the attendant of God while you have time. Even as the elm loves the vine, so you love people of no account. Observe now, O barren one, the law which is terrible to the evil, and equally benignant to the good; be humble in prosperity. Take away, O rich men, hearts of fraud, and take up hearts of peace. And look upon your evil-doing. Do you do good? I am here.