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Just as physicians are saviors to the sick, so also are laws to those who are wronged. The truest laws are the most just. It is proper to yield to the law and to the ruler and to the wiser. Things done contrary to the law are as if they were not done. Demosth. Demosthenes the orator said that the laws are the soul of the city.
For just as a body deprived of its soul falls, so also a city, without existing laws, is destroyed.
Of Cyrus. The same, having been asked, Whom do you consider to be unjust? Those who do not use the law, he said.
Theophrast. The good have need of few laws; for affairs are not adapted to the laws, but the laws are made for affairs.
Anonymous. The best democracy is that in which all fear the law as a tyrant.
Arcesilaus. Arcesilaus used to say: Just as where there are many drugs and many physicians, there are the most diseases; so also, where there are the most laws, there is also the greatest injustice.
DISCOURSE 59. Concerning the rational and reasoning. (15Ε_420> Luke 6. A good man, out of the good treasure of his
heart brings forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things
2 Corinthians 10. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down 980 of strongholds; casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Proverbs 15. The thoughts of the prudent are the ways of life; from his thoughts a man shall be filled with good things.
Proverbs 12. The thoughts of the righteous are judgments. Proverbs 19. Many are the thoughts in a man's heart; but the counsel of God
shall stand forever. Sirach 27. In the shaking of a sieve, dung remains; so the refuse of a man
in his reasoning. Basil. For from the rational and the irrational, according to the Greek view of natural philosophy
a creature, like a kind of centaur, the Creator composed the whole man, fittingly attaching to the anthropomorphic part above, from head to chest, the nature carried below from the navel to the loins, like that of a horse [being brutish for the pleasures of the belly, and being moved irrationally towards sexual union]; not wishing the rational part to be seized by the irrational part, but all-wisely placing the irrational part to be subjected to the rational, to be guided by the reins towards the necessities of nature.
Of the same. He who strives to achieve divine impassibility, ought to keep his own reasoning unenslaved to any passion.
(15Ε_422> Of the Theologian. Reasoning is better than deeds or money; for the former belong to corruption, but the latter stands fast.
Chrysost. For this reason sparrows have wings, that they may flee the snare; and for this reason men have reasoning, that they may escape sins.
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Ὥσπερ τοῖς νοσοῦσιν ἰατροί σωτῆρες, οὕτω καί τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις οἱ νόμοι. Νόμοι ἀληθέστατοι οἱ δικαιότατοι. Νόμῳ καί ἄρχοντι καί τῷ σοφωτέρῳ εἴκειν κόσμιον. Τά παρά νόμον γινόμενα, ἀντί μή γινομένων εἰσίν. ∆ημοσθ. ∆ημοσθένης ὁ ῥήτωρ ἔφη, πόλεως εἶναι τήν ψυχήν, τούς νόμους.
Ὥσπερ γάρ σῶμα στερηθέν ψυχῆς πίπτει, οὕτω καί πόλις, μή ὄντων νόμων καταλύεται.
Κύρου. Ὁ αὐτός ἐρωτηθείς, Τίνας ἀδίκους νομίζεις εἶναι; Τούς μή χρωμένους, εἶπε, τῷ νόμῳ.
Θεοφράστ. Ὀλίγων οἱ ἀγαθοί νόμων δέονται· οὐ γάρ τά πράγματα πρός τούς νόμους, ἀλλ᾿ οἱ νόμοι πρός τά πράγματα τίθενται.
Ἀνωνύμου. Κρατίστην εἶναι δημοκρατίαν, ἐν ᾗ οἱ πάντες ὡς τύραννον φοβοῦνται τόν νόμον.
Ἀρκεσίλαος. Ἀρκεσίλαος ἔλεγεν· Ὥσπερ ὅπου φάρμακα πολλά καί ἰατροί πολλοί, ἐνταῦθα νόσοι πλεῖσται· οὕτω δή καί ὅπου νόμοι πλεῖστοι, ἐκεῖ εἶναι καί ἀδικίαν μεγίστην.
ΛΟΓΟΣ ΝΘ´. Περί λογικοῦ καί λογισμοῦ. (15Ε_420> Λουκ. στ´. Ὁ ἀγαθός ἄνθρωπος, ἐκ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ θησαυροῦ τῆς
καρδίας ἐκβάλλει ἀγαθά· καί ὁ πονηρός ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ θησαυροῦ ἐκβάλλει πονηρά
Β´ Κορινθ. ι´. Τά γάρ ὅπλα τῆς στρατείας ἡμῶν οὐ σαρκικά, ἀλλά δυνατά τῷ Θεῷ πρός καθαίρεσιν 980 ὀχυρωμάτων· λογισμούς καθαιροῦντες, καί πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον κατά τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί αἰχμαλωτίζοντες πᾶν νόημα εἰς τήν ὑπακοήν τοῦ Χριστοῦ.
Παροιμ. ιε΄. Ὁδοί ζωῆς διανοήματα συνετοῦ· ἀπό τῶν διανοημάτων αὐτοῦ πλησθήσεται ἀνήρ ἀγαθῶν.
Παροιμ. ιβ΄. Λογισμοί δικαίων κρίματα. Παροιμ. ιθ´. Πολλοί λογισμοί ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνδρός· ἡ δέ βουλή τοῦ Θεοῦ
κρατήσει εἰς τόν αἰῶνα. Σιράχ κζ´. Ἐν σείσματι κοσκίνου διαμείνει κοπρία· οὕτως σκύβαλα ἀνθρώπου
ἐν λογισμῷ αὐτοῦ. Βασιλ. Ἐκ λογικοῦ γάρ καί ἀλόγου, κατά τό Ἑλληνικόν πρός φυσιολογίαν
πλάσμα, ὥσπερ τινά κένταυρον, συνθείς ὁ ∆ημιουργός ὅλον τόν ἄνθρωπον τῷ ἀνθρωπομόρφῳ ἀπό κεφαλῆς ἕως στέρνων ἄνωθεν μέρει, τό ἀπό ὀμφαλοῦ ἕως ὀσφύος καθάπερ ἵππου, φύσιν [πρός τε τάς γαστρός ἡδονάς κτηνῶδες ὑπάρχον, καί πρός τάς μίξεις ἀλόγως κινούμενον] κάτωθεν φέρον προσήρμοσεν· οὐχ ὐπό τοῦ ἀλόγου μέρους τό λογικόν ἐξαρπάζεσθαι βουληθείς, ἀλλά τῷ λογικῷ ὑποβεβλημένον ἔχοντι τό ἄλογον μέρος, ἡνιοχεῖσθαι πρός τάς τῆς φύσεως ἀνάγκας, πανσόφως ἐνθείς.
Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ὁ τήν θείαν ἀπάθειαν κατορθῶσαι σπουδάζων, ἀδούλωτον παντί πάθει ὀφείλει φυλάξαι τόν ἑαυτοῦ λογισμόν.
(15Ε_422> Θεολόγου. Κρείσσων λογισμός πράξεων ἤ χρημάτων· τά μέν γάρ τῆς φθορᾶς ἐστιν, ὁ δέ ἵσταται.
Χρυσοστ. ∆ιά τοῦτο πτερά τοῖς στρουθίοις, ἵνα φύγῃ παγίδα· καί διά τοῦτο λογισμός τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἵνα ἐκφύγωσιν ἁμαρτήματα.