17 Question your neighbor before you threaten him; and let the law of the Most High take its course. 20 The whole of wisdom is fear of the Lord, and in all wisdom there is the fulfillment of the law. 22 The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, nor is there prudence in the counsel of sinners. 23 There is a cleverness that is detestable, and there is a fool who merely lacks wisdom. 24 Better are the God-fearing who lack understanding than the highly intelligent who transgress the law.

But now we are benefited mutually and reciprocally by words and deeds; but we must repudiate entirely the art of wrangling and sophistry, since these sentences of the sophists not only bewitch and beguile the many, but sometimes by violence win a Cadmean victory. For true above all is that Psalm, "The just shall live to the end, for he shall not see corruption, when he beholds the wise dying." And whom does he call wise? Hear from the Wisdom of Jesus: "Wisdom is not the knowledge of evil." Such he calls what the arts of speaking and of discussing have invented. "Thou shalt therefore seek wisdom among the wicked, and shalt not find it." And if you inquire again of what sort this is, you are told, "The mouth of the righteous man will distil wisdom." And simi larly with truth, the art of sophistry is called wisdom.