Letter 88: Epicurus, the shepherd of your flock, impiously declared that everything came into being by chance and would return...

On the point that those above all who have done nothing good ought not to boast. To Martinianus. If the Pharisee [in the parable of Luke 18, who listed his own virtues in prayer], who had actually done the things he boasted of, was nevertheless condemned, why do you boast, simply making noise with your throat and not acting virtuously, and so make yourself liable to a worse judgment than the one the Pharisee underwent? For he had done nothing worthy of blame, and was charged with this one thing only: his conceit over his good conduct.

Ὅτι μάλιστα οἱ μηδὲν ἀγαθὸν πεπραχότες οὐκ ὀφείλουσιν ἀλαζονεύεσθαι. (87) Εἰ πράξας ὁ Φαρισαῖος ἃ ἐκαυχήσατο, σὺ τι καυχᾶσαι λαρυγγίζων ἁπλῶς, καὶ οὐ πράττων χρηστῶς, καὶ χείρονος ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν ἔνοχον κρίσεως ἧς ὁ Φαρισαῖος ὑπέμεινεν; οὐδὲν μὲν ἄξιον μέμψεως πεπραχώς, μόνην δὲ τὴν οἴησιν τῆς εὐπραγίας ἐγκληθείς.