Miscellanies 8.1.2

To those who knock in this way, I think, what is sought is opened; and to those who thus ask their questions according to the Scriptures, the goal toward which they are moving comes from God: the gift of God-given knowledge, firmly grasped through inquiry that truly shines out by reason. For it is not possible to find without seeking; nor to seek without searching; nor to search thoroughly without unfolding and laying open what is sought by questioning, bringing it to clarity; nor, again, having gone through every examination, not then to receive the prize, the scientific knowledge of what was sought. But the one who has sought can find; and he will seek if he first thinks that he does not know. Drawn on from there by longing toward the discovery of the good, he seeks with good sense, without love of contention or of glory, asking and answering, and in addition examining the things said themselves. For it is fitting that those who hold not only to the divine Scriptures but also to the common notions should conduct their inquiries so that the finding ends in some useful goal. Another place and another crowd await the turbulent among men and the quibbles of the marketplace; but the lover of truth, who is also its disciple, ought to be peaceable even in inquiries, advancing without self-love and with love of truth, by scientific demonstration, toward knowledge that firmly grasps its object.