Complete Works of Philo Judaeus (Vol. 4)

...since even that which is without divine supervision is unprofitable. And well is it said that "he was not found" concerning the one who was translated, either because the ancient life that was liable to censure had been wiped out and made to disappear, as if it had never existed at all, or because the one who was translated and placed in the better order is by nature difficult to find. For wickedness is widespread, and thus known to many; but virtue is rare, so that it is not grasped even by a few. And otherwise, the base man pursues the marketplace, theaters, courts, council chambers, assemblies, and every gathering and company of men, since he lives in meddlesomeness. He loosens his tongue for boundless and endless and indiscriminate narration, confusing everything and mixing it up: truth with falsehood, the unspeakable with the spoken, the private with the common, the sacred with the profane, and the serious with the ridiculous, because he has not been educated in the most beautiful thing at the right time, which is silence. And having pricked up his ears for the sake of prosperity and meddlesome curiosity, he yearns to learn the things of others, whether good or evil, so that he may immediately envy some and take pleasure in others; for the base man is by nature envious, a hater of the good, and a lover of evil.

§. 4. The man of worth, on the contrary, having become a zealot for a life of tranquility, withdraws and loves solitude, choosing to escape the notice of the many, not out of misanthropy—for he is a philanthropist, if anyone is—but because he has avoided wickedness, which the common crowd embraces, rejoicing in things over which one ought to lament, and being grieved by things over which it is good to rejoice. For these reasons, having shut himself up at home, he remains there most of the time, barely crossing the threshold; or, because of visitors, going out more frequently outside the city, he spends his time in a small retreat, finding it more pleasant to have as companions the best of the whole human race, whose bodies time has dissolved, but whose virtues the remaining writings kindle, through poems and prose compositions, by which the soul is naturally improved.