32. Our discussion deals with those who, acknowledging that there is a divine race of beings, doubt about those of greater rank and power, whilst they admit that there are deities inferior and more humble. What then? Do we strive and toil to obtain such results by arguments? Far hence be such madness; and, as the phrase is, let the folly, say I, be averted from us. For it is as dangerous to attempt to prove by arguments that God is the highest being, as it is to wish to discover by reasoning of this kind that He exists. It is a matter of indifference whether you deny that He exists, or affirm it and admit it; since equally culpable are both the assertion of such a thing, and the denial of an unbelieving opponent.

0757A XXXII. Sermo cum his nobis est, qui divinum esse consentientes genus, de majoribus dubitant, cum iidem esse plebeia atque humiliora fateantur. Quid ergo, res tantas argumentis nitemur atque elaboramus obtinere? Discedat haec longe, atque a nobis procul, inquam, ut dicitur, averruncetur amentia. Ita est enim periculosum argumentis aggredi, Deum principem comprobare, quam ratione hujusmodi esse illum, velle cognoscere. Nec quicquam refert, aut discrepat, utrumne neges illum, an asseras, atque existere fatearis: cum in eadem culpa sit, et assertio talis rei, et abnegatio refutatoris increduli.