Miscellanies 7.12.70

But such self-control is a foundation of knowledge, a kind of approach to what is better and an impulse toward what is perfect. For “the beginning of wisdom,” it says, “is the fear of the Lord.” But the perfect man, through love, “bears all things, endures all things,” “not as pleasing man but God.” And yet praise follows him too as a consequence, not for his own benefit but for the imitation and use of those who praise him. In another sense also, the self-controlled man is said to be not only the one who masters the passions, but also the one who has become master of good things and has securely acquired the great riches of understanding, from which he bears the fruit of virtuous activity. In this way the one who knows never departs from his own disposition when a crisis arises. For the understanding possession of the good is steadfast and unchangeable, being understanding of divine and human things. Knowledge, then, never becomes ignorance, nor does the good change into evil. That is why he eats and drinks and marries, not as an end in itself, but out of necessity. And I say “marries,” if reason chooses it, and as is fitting. For having become perfect, he has the apostles as his examples. And the true man is shown not by choosing the solitary life; rather, he “surpasses men” who has trained himself in marriage, the begetting of children, and the care of the household, without pleasure and without grief, and has remained inseparable from the love of God while caring for his household, and has risen above every temptation that comes through children and wife, servants and possessions. But the man without a household has for the most part turned out to be untested. Caring, at any rate, for himself alone, he is surpassed by the man who falls short of him in his own salvation but excels in the management of life, and who preserves, quite simply, a small image of the true providence. But we, as far as possible, must train the soul beforehand in various ways,