Nothing so benefits the weak as withdrawal into stillness, or the man subject to the passions and without spiritual knowledge as obedience combined with stillness. Nor is there anything better than to know one's own weakness and ignorance, nor anything worse than not to recognize them. No passion is so hateful as pride, or as ridiculous as avarice, 'the root of all evils' (1 Tim. 6:10): for those who with great labor mine silver, and then hide it in the earth again, remain without any profit.
