Exhortation to the Greeks 6.72

Cleanthes of Pedasis, the Stoic philosopher, displays not a poetic theogony but a true theology. He did not hide what he thought about God: “You ask me what the good is like? Listen, then: ordered, just, holy, pious, master of itself, useful, beautiful, fitting, austere, candid, always advantageous, fearless, painless, profitable, without anguish, helpful, well-pleasing, secure, friendly, honored, consistent … glorious, without conceit, careful, gentle, vehement, enduring, blameless, ever abiding. Everyone who looks to opinion is ignoble, as though he would get something good from it.” Here, I think, he teaches clearly what God is like, and how common opinion and custom enslave those who follow them instead of seeking God. Nor must we hide the followers of Pythagoras, who say: “God is one; and he is not, as some suppose, outside the ordered world, but within it, whole in the whole circle, overseer of all coming-to-be, the blending of all the ages, and worker of his own powers and of all works, the light in heaven and Father of all, mind and ensouling of the whole circle, the movement of all things.” These words too are enough for the knowledge of God, written by them through God's inspiration and selected by us, for anyone who can examine the truth even a little.