Letter 1110: Character is revealed not by what a person says but by what he does when no one is watching.

To Athanasius. That it was not expedient for us to have knowledge of all things. This very thing which you call unreasonable I for my part consider to be wise as well. For if all things were plain, where should we have employed our understanding, since there would be no inquiry? But if all things were obscure, in that case too we would have collapsed, since there would be no discovery. As it is, however, through the things that are plain the things that are obscure are also in a certain manner grasped. And if any of them should escape us, even so it benefits us, by checking our swelling pride. [The letter's closing lines are repeated in a partial Latin rendering of the same Greek, which adds nothing further: the things that are plain are clear, and through them in a certain manner those things too are comprehended which are obscure and hidden; but if those things should escape our knowledge, even so the matter brings us a benefit not to be regretted, since our wondrous arrogance is by this means restrained.]

Ὅτι οὐκ ἦν συμφέρον, τῶν πάντων γνῶσιν ἔχειν ἡμᾶς. Σοφὸν ἔγωγε καὶ τοῦτ’ εἶναι ἡγοῦμαι, ὃ σὺ φῂς παράλογον. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ πάντα ἦν δῆλα (65), ποῦ τῇ συνέσει ἐχρησάμεθα, μὴ οὔσης ζητήσεως; Εἰ δὲ πάντα ἄδηλα, καὶ οὕτως ἀναπεπτώκειμεν ἄν, μὴ ἀ- ούσης εὑρέσεως. Νῦν δὲ διὰ τῶν δήλων, καὶ τὰ ἄδηλα τρόπον τινὰ καταλαμβάνεται. Εἰ δὲ διάφυγοι, καὶ οὕτως ἡμᾶς ὠφελεῖ, τὸ φύσημα ἡμῶν καταστέλλοντα. οὐκ sunt clara, quodanimodo etiam ea comprehenduntur, quæ sunt obscura et abdita. Quod si no- stram illa cognitionem effugiant, sic quoque nobis utilitatem ea res affert (non poenitendam) dum mirum fastus noster hac ratione comprimitur.