Miscellanies 2.9.45

How the virtues follow one another, what need is there to say, since it has already been shown that faith rests on repentance and hope, caution on faith, and that perseverance and exercise in these, together with learning, are completed in love, and love is perfected in knowledge? But this must of necessity be noted in passing: that only the divine must be understood to be wise by nature. That is why wisdom, which taught the truth, is also a power of God; and somewhere here the perfection of knowledge has been grasped. The philosopher loves and cherishes the truth, having now come to be regarded as a friend through love, from being a true servant. Its beginning is to wonder at things, as Plato says in the Theaetetus, and as Matthias, exhorting in the Traditions, says, “Wonder at what is before you,” laying this down as the first step of the knowledge beyond. So also in the Gospel according to the Hebrews it is written: “He who wonders will reign, and he who has reigned will rest.” It is impossible, then, for the unlearned, as long as he remains unlearned, to philosophize, at least one who has not received a conception of wisdom, since philosophy is a longing for what truly is and for the studies that contribute to it. And even if some have trained themselves to do well, yet to know how one must use, act, and work together is the means by which one becomes like God, God, I mean, the Savior, serving the God of the universe through the high priest, the Word, through whom what is truly beautiful and just is beheld. Godliness is conduct that follows and conforms to God.