Letter 438

To the same person. The multitude of the things we look upon to our discredit often drags in its train, out of our own insensibility, vainglory, which is the worst of all evils, and conceit. But the one who has thoroughly cultivated all the virtues, leaving none out, will make himself a stranger to senseless, foolish, and rotten vainglory, and to empty conceit.

Τὸ πλῆθος τῶν παρ’ ἡμῶν ὁρωμένων ψεκτῶς, τὴν πάντων χείρονα τῶν κακῶν κενοδοξίαν, καὶ τὸν τῦφον πολλάκις ἐκ τῆς ἀναλγησίας ἐπισύρεται. Ὁ δέ γε πάσας ἐκσεκομθμένος ἀπαρελλείπτως τὰς ἀρετάς, ἀλλότριον ἑαυτὸν καταστήσει τῆς ἀνοήτου, καὶ μωρᾶς, καὶ σαθρᾶς κενοδοξίας, καὶ τοῦ ματαίου τύφου.