Miscellanies 2.5.24

Fittingly, then, it is said in Solomon, “Wisdom is in the mouth of the faithful,” since Xenocrates too, in his work On Prudence, says that wisdom is the knowledge of first causes and of intelligible substance, considering prudence twofold, the practical and the contemplative, which is human wisdom. So wisdom is prudence, but not all prudence is wisdom. It has been shown that the knowledge of the first principle of the universe is faith, not demonstration. For it is absurd that the followers of Pythagoras of Samos, renouncing demonstrations of what is inquired into, should consider “He himself said it” as faith, and be satisfied with this voice alone for the confirmation of what they had heard, while those who love to behold the truth, attempting to disbelieve the trustworthy Teacher, the only Savior God, should demand from him proofs of what is said. But he says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And who is this? Let Epicharmus say: “Mind sees and mind hears; all else is deaf and blind.” Heraclitus, rebuking some as unbelievers, says, “knowing neither how to hear nor how to speak,” benefiting no doubt from Solomon: “If you love to hear, you will receive; and if you incline your ear, you will be wise.”