Gregory Thaumaturgus, Panegyric to Origen Argument 10.— Hence the Mere Word-Sages are Conf

I ask this of the philosophers now living—those I knew myself and those I heard about from others—and of everyone else: receive what I am about to say without bias. Let no one assume I speak from friendship toward the man, or because I still cling to the other philosophers (whom, if anyone else does, I myself—being a lover of the word—wish to honor, and I want to speak well of them and hear others speak well of them). But these philosophers are so utterly despised by almost everyone that the very name of philosophy is scorned; I would rather choose a private life than learn anything from men who, because of their conduct, seemed unworthy even to approach—though I may have judged that wrongly. Still, let no one suppose I say this from some ambition, whether from praise for the man or from rivalry toward outside philosophers. Nor let us appear to flatter by saying less than their deeds deserve, nor let us offer up words, names, and crafted phrases that they themselves invent for self-praise. For even as a youth I was not taught the common rhetoric of the rhetorician—to praise and deliver an encomium for something untrue—and I willingly endured that lack. So now, when I am about to praise, I do not think it right to exalt him merely by censuring others, or to speak ill of the man because of others' faults so that I might have something greater to say about him, disparaging his blessed life. That is not how we think; rather, I will simply acknowledge what I have experienced, without comparison or verbal artifice.