For that the power to distinguish between good and less good is the property of wisdom is evident surely even to the witless; so that the serpent was… - Julian

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For that the power to distinguish between good and less good is the property of wisdom is evident surely even to the witless; so that the serpent was a benefactor rather than a destroyer of the human race.

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About Julian

Flavius Claudius Julianus (c. 331 – 26 June 363) was a Hellenistic philosopher, military leader, Roman emperor, and satirist, often referred to as Julian the Apostate because of his rejection of formal Christian doctrines, and opposition to their spread, and sometimes as Julian II, to distinguish him from Didius Julianus. Sometimes now referred to as Julian the Philosopher, he was the last pagan Augustus of the Roman Empire.

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Additional quotes by Julian

What could be more irrational, even if ten or fifteen persons, or even, let us suppose, a hundred, for they certainly will not say that there were a thousand,–-however, let us assume that even as many persons as that ventured to transgress some one of the laws laid down by God; was it right that on account of this one thousand, six hundred thousand should be utterly destroyed?

Who, I ask, ever found salvation through the conquests of Alexander? What city was ever more wisely governed because of them, what individual improved? Many indeed you might find whom those conquests enriched, but not one whom they made wiser or more temperate than he was by nature, if indeed they have not made him more insolent and arrogant. Whereas all who now find their salvation in philosophy owe it to Socrates.

For it is only fair that words should follow on deeds, and that he who has never avoided deeds should not avoid the phrases that describe them.
- Letters of Julian, To Niles

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