Letter 157: It is wise — what you call unreasonable — that we do not have knowledge of all things.

To Athanasius. If you serve at the altar of Christ, carry out your liturgy in accordance with his laws, showing yourself gentle and humble in heart. For you are not handling some civil governorship, inflamed with arrogance and pomp, but a ministry that is peaceful and undisturbed. But if wealth unjustly amassed lifts you up, it will itself the sooner be vomited out, having a nature that is fluid and unstable; while you, for your part, will incur the laughter of many, since you have attached yourself to things that race past as though they stood still.

Εἰ τῷ Χριστοῦ διακονεῖς θυσιαστηρίῳ, μετὰ τῶν αὐτοῦ νόμων, μέτερχε (52) τὴν λειτουργίαν σου, πρᾶος καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ φαινόμενος. Οὐ γὰρ πολιτικήν τινα χειρίζεις ἡγεμονίαν, τύφῳ καὶ κόμπῳ φλεγμαίνουσαν· ἀλλὰ διακονίαν εἰρηνικὴν καὶ ἀτάραχον. Εἰ δὲ πλοῦτος ἄδικος συναχθεὶς ὑπεραίρει σε, αὐτὸς μὲν θᾶττον ἐξεμεθήσεται, ῥευστὴν ἔχων τὴν φύσιν καὶ ἄστατον· σὺ δὲ πολλῶν ἀφλήσεις τὸν γέλωτα, τοῖς παρατρέχουσιν ὡς ἐστῶσι προσθέμενος.