Letter 814: Virtue must be practiced with all one's strength — not merely admired from a distance.

To Athanasius I sing what is called a palinode [a song of recantation]. For I missed the mark, or, to speak more truly, I erred in judgment, in not finding you to be such a man as I supposed you to be when I set about praising you. But this is no fault of mine; it is the charge against your own change, which has inclined toward the worse. For I, since I both trusted those who praised you, and lend my support to those who are commended (for I have a certain inclination toward the good), believed those who praised you. For I wish all men to be held in good repute; but you, by changing yourself, did not convict me. Yet if I despaired of you, I would not be writing this. But since I look for an excellent change in you, I both write and exhort you, so that you may bring yourself back to your former virtue.

Ἆδω τὴν καλουμένην παλινῳδίαν. Ἥμαρτον γὰρ σκοποῦ, ἤ, τόγε ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, γνώμης, μὴ εὑρών σε τοιοῦτον οἷον νομίζων ἐγκωμιάζειν ἐπεχείρουν. Τοῦτο δὲ οὐκ ἐμὸν, ἀλλὰ τῆς σῆς μεταβολῆς τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω νευσάσης ἐστὶν ἔγκλημα. Ἐγὼ μὲν γάρ, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ πίστευον τοῖς ἐγκωμιάζουσι, καὶ τοὺς ἐπαινουμένους συγκροτῶ (ἔχω γάρ τινα ῥοπὴν πρὸς τὸ καλόν), πεπίστευκα τοῖς σε ἐπαινέσασι. Βούλομαι γὰρ πάντας εὐδοκίμους εἶναι· αὐτὸς δὲ μεταβληθεὶς σαυτόν, οὐκ ἐμὲ ἤλεγξας. Ἀλλ’ εἰ μὲν ἀπ-εγίνωσκον, οὐκ ἂν ταῦτ’ ἔγραφον. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἀρίστην μεταβολὴν προσδοκῶ, καὶ γράφω, καὶ προτρέπω, ὥστε εἰς τὴν ἀρχαίαν ἀρετὴν σαυτὸν ἐπαναγαγεῖν.