Miscellanies 4.22.136

For example, it was said to the Lord in the person of God: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance,” teaching him to ask the most royal request, the salvation of men without reward, so that we might inherit and possess the Lord. Conversely, to desire knowledge about God for the sake of some need, that this may happen to me and that may not, is not characteristic of the one who knows; for him knowledge itself is sufficient reason for contemplation. For, if I may dare to say it, the one who pursues knowledge for the sake of divine understanding itself will not choose knowledge for the sake of wishing to be saved. For thinking, through practice, extends to always thinking; and always thinking, becoming the substance of the knower by an unbroken blending, and eternal contemplation, remains a living reality. If, then, one should propose to the one who knows, by hypothesis, which he would choose, the knowledge of God or eternal salvation, supposing these were separate (though they are above all identical), without the least hesitation he would choose the knowledge of God, judging to be choiceworthy for its own sake the property of faith that has ascended through love to knowledge.