Letter 145: On the text: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called...

To Theon. The virtues of speech are these: truth, brevity, clarity, and timeliness; its vices are falsehood, prolixity, obscurity, and being carried beyond the right occasions. For what profit is there if speech be true, yet not brief, but wearies its hearers? Or brief, yet not clear? Or clear, yet not timely? But if it possesses all the virtues, then it will be effective, and vigorous, and full of life: with its truth subduing the hearers, with its brevity overcoming them, with its clarity laying hold of them, and with its timeliness being crowned.

Λόγου ἀρεταὶ μὲν, ἀλήθεια, συντομία, σαφήνεια, εὐκαιρία· κακίαι δὲ, ψεῦδος, μακρηγορία, ἀσάφεια, τὸ ἔξω τῶν καιρῶν φέρεσθαι. Τί γὰρ ὄφελος, εἰ ἀληθὴς μὲν εἴη, μὴ σύντομος δὲ, ἀλλ’ ἐνοχλεῖ τοὺς ἀκούοντας; ἢ σύντομος μὲν, μὴ σαφὴς δέ; ἢ σαφὴς μὲν, μὴ καίριος δέ; εἰ δὲ πάσας ἔχοι τὰς ἀρετὰς, τότε δραστήριος ἔσται, καὶ γοργὸς καὶ ἔμψυχος, τῇ μὲν ἀληθείᾳ τοὺς ἀκούοντας χειρούμενος, τῇ δὲ συντομίᾳ καταγωνιζόμενος· καὶ τῇ μὲν σαφηνείᾳ καθαπτόμενος, τῇ δὲ εὐκαιρίᾳ στεφανούμενος.