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Proverbs 18. A man who wants to be separated from friends finds excuses. Proverbs 15. Better is a meal of vegetables with friendship and grace, than a serving

of calves with hatred. Sirach 22. Someone throwing a stone at birds, scares them away; and one who reproaches a friend,

will dissolve a friendship. Sirach 6. A faithful friend is a strong shelter; and he who has found him, has found a treasure. Sirach 9. Do not forsake an old friend; for the new one is not equal

to him. Sirach 6. There is no exchange for a faithful friend, and there is no measure of his

goodness. Of Basil. No one wicked and ignorant is a friend. For the good of friendship does not fall

into a wicked disposition; because nothing shameful and disharmonious can enter into the concord of friendship. 15Ε_060 For evil is not only opposed to the good, but also to itself.

Things from friends, even if it be insolence, are bearable. Of the Theologian. Always prefer the good over the not good. And conversing with the wicked, you too will certainly become wicked. Friendship will bear all things, both suffering and hearing. Division for the sake of piety is better than passionate concord. Associations with the wicked are harmful; since this law of friendship through

likeness is naturally engendered in those who are joined; those who hold hatred in the depths, show a surface colored with love, like underwater reefs, which, covered by a little water, become an unforeseen evil for the unwary.

May you never experience good from a bad man. For seek to have pardon for the things he has lived. For bodies are joined by place, but souls are harmonized by spirit. Know the limits of enmity, but not of friendship. Let no one think me to say that all peace is to be loved (for I know, just as there is a

certain very good dissension, so also there is a most harmful concord), but that which is good and for a good purpose, and which joins one to God.

757 Chrysostom. Just as a soul without a body is not called a man, nor was a body without a soul; so neither is love for God, if it does not also have as a consequence love for one's neighbor.

Nothing is equal to concord. For the one, is thus many. For if two or ten are of one mind, the one is no longer one, but each of them becomes ten times greater; and you will find in the ten 15Ε_062 the one, and in the one the ten. And if they have enemies, by attacking the one, he attacks the ten, and so is captured. The one was at a loss, but he is not at a loss; for the part that is at a loss is overshadowed by the greater part. Each of these has twenty hands and twenty eyes, and as many feet, and ten souls. For not only with his own, but also with theirs he does all things. And if it should be a hundred, the same thing happens again. The same man can be both in Persia and in Rome; and what nature cannot do, love can. If then you have a thousand friends or two thousand, consider where again the power will be surpassed. For this is the wondrous thing, to make a thousandth one, For it is better for us for the sun to be extinguished, than to be deprived of friends. For many, seeing the sun, are in darkness; but those abounding in friends, would not be in affliction. For nothing, nothing of love

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Παροιμ. ιη΄.Προφασίζεται ἀνήρ βουλόμενος χωρισθῆναι ἀπό φίλων. Παροιμ. ιε´. Κρεῖσσον ξενισμός λαχάνων πρός φιλίαν καί χάριν, ἤ παράθεσις

μόσχων μετά ἔχθρας. Σιράχ κβ´. Βάλλων λίθον τις ἐπί πετεινά, ἐπισοβεῖ αὐτά· καί ὀνειδίζων φίλον,

διαλύσει φιλίαν. Σιράχ στ´. Φίλος πιστός σκέπη κραταιά· ὁ δέ εὑρών αὐτόν, εὗρε θησαυρόν. Σιράχ θ´. Μή ἐγκαταλίπῃς φίλον ἀρχαῖον· ὁ γάρ πρόσφατος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπίσης

αὐτῷ. Σιράχ στ´. Φίλου πιστοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀντάλλαγμα, καί οὐκ ἔστιν σταθμός τῆς

καλλονῆς αὐτοῦ. Βασιλείου. Οὐδείς πονηρῶν καί ἀμαθῶν φίλος. Οὐδέ γάρ πίπτει τό φιλίας

καλόν, εἰς μοχθηράν διάθεσιν· διότι οὐδέν αἰσχρόν καί ἀνάρμοστον εἰς συμφωνίαν δύναται χωρῆσαι φιλίας. 15Ε_060 Τό γάρ κακόν, οὐ τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἐναντίον ἐστί μόνον, ἀλλά καί αὐτό ἑαυτῷ.

Τά παρά φίλων, κἄν ὕβρις ᾗ, φορητά. Θεολόγου. Ἀεί προτίμα τούς καλούς τῶν μή καλῶν. Κακοῖς δ᾿ ὁμιλῶν, καί κἀκός πάντως ἔσῃ. Πάντα οἴσει φιλία, καί πάσχουσα καί ἀκούουσα. Κρείσσων ἐμπαθοῦς ὁμονοίας ἡ ὑπέρ εὐσεβείας διάστασις. Βλαβεραί αἱ πρός τούς κακούς συνουσίαι· ἐπειδή νόμος οὗτος φιλίας δι᾿

ὁμοιότητος πέφυκεν τοῖς συναπτομένοις ἐγγίνεσθαι οἱ μῖσος ἐν τῷ βάθει κατέχοντες, ἀγάπῃ δεικνύουσι κατακεχρωσμένην τήν ἐπιφάνειαν, κατά τάς ὑφάλους πέτρας, αἵ βραχεῖ ὕδατι καλυπτόμεναι, κακόν ἀπροαίρετον τοῖς ἀφυλάκτοις γίνονται.

Κακοῦ παρ᾿ ἀνδρός μή ποτε χρηστόν πάθῃς. Ζήτει γάρ ὧν βεβίωκε συγγνώμην ἔχειν. Τά μέν γάρ σώματα τόπῳ συνάπτεται, Ψυχαί δέ πνεύματι συναρμόζονται. Ἔχθρας ὅρους γίνωσκε, φιλίας δέ μή. Μηδείς οἰέσθω με λέγειν, ὅτι πᾶσαν εἰρήνην ἀγαπητέον (οἶδα γάρ, ὥδπερ

στάσιν τινά βελτίστην, οὕτω καί βλαβερωτάτην ὁμόνοιαν), ἀλλά τήν τε καλήν καί ἐπί καλῷ, καί Θεῷ συνάπτουσαν.

757 Χρυσοστ. Ὥσπερ ψυχή ἄνευ σώματος οὐ καλεῖται ἄνθρωπος, οὐδέ ἦν σῶμα ἄνευ ψυχῆς· οὕτως οὐδέ ἀγάπη πρός Θεόν, ἐάν μή ἔχῃ ἀκόλουθον καί τήν πρός τόν πλησίον ἀγάπην.

Οὐδέν ὁμονοίας ἴσον. Ὁ γάρ εἷς, πολλοστός ἐστιν οὕτως. Ἄν γάρ ὁμόψυχοι ὦσι δύο ἤ δέκα, οὐκέτι εἷς ἐστιν ὁ εἷς, ἀλλά δεκαπλασίων ἕκαστος αὐτῶν γίνεται· καί εὑρήσεις ἐν τοῖς δέκα 15Ε_062 τόν ἕνα, καί ἐν τῷ ἑνί τούς δέκα. Κἄν ἐχθρούς ἔχωσιν ἐν τῷ ἑνί προσβαλών, ἐν τοῖς δέκα προσβαλών, οὕτως ἁλίσκεται. Ἠπόρησεν ὁ εἷς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἀπορίᾳ· τῷ γάρ μείζονι μέρει τό ἀποροῦν συσκιάζεται. Ἕκαστος τούτων εἴκοσι χεῖρας ἔχει καί εἴκοσιν ὀφθαλμούς, καί πόδας τοσούτους, καί ψυχάς δέκα. Οὐ γάρ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μόνον, ἀλλά καί τοῖς ἐκείνων ἐργάζεται πάντα. Εἰ δέ καί ἑκατόν γένοιτο, τό αὐτό ἔστι πάλιν. Ὁ αὐτός καί ἐν Περσίδι καί ἐνῬώμῃ δύναται εἶναι· καί ὅπερ φύσις οὐ δύναται, ἡ ἀγάπη δύναται. Ἐάν οὖν χιλίους ἔχῃς φίλους ἤ δισχιλίους, ἐννόησον ποῦ πάλιν ὑπερβήσεται τά τῆς δυνάμεως. Τό γάρ θαυμαστόν τοῦτό ἐστι, τό χιλιοστόν ποιῆσαι ἕνα, Βέλτιον γάρ ἡμῖν σβεσθῆναι τόν ἥλιον, ἤ φίλων ἀποστερηθῆναι. Πολλοί γάρ τόν ἥλιον, ὁρῶντες, ἐν σκότῳ εἰσί· φίλων δέ εὐποροῦντες, οὐδ᾿ ἄν ἐν θλίψει γένοιντο. Οὐδέν γάρ, οὐδέν τῆς ἀγάπης