From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Dorotheus, the Most Illustrious
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore on the gap between appearance and reality — both in the paths people choose and in what those paths actually deliver.
What seems broad and pleasant often turns out to be narrow and painful. What seems narrow and difficult often opens into genuine spaciousness.
This is the deep paradox of moral life. The way that accommodates every appetite and indulges every inclination — which looks from a distance like freedom — is, from inside, the most constricting thing imaginable. The person on it is controlled by everything. The way that requires discipline and sacrifice — which looks from outside like constraint — is, from inside, the way of the person who is controlled by nothing external.
The seeming and the being are reversed. Recognize which you are choosing.
Context:Isidore on the gap between appearance and reality — both in the paths people choose and in what those paths actually deliver.
What seems broad and pleasant often turns out to be narrow and painful. What seems narrow and difficult often opens into genuine spaciousness.
This is the deep paradox of moral life. The way that accommodates every appetite and indulges every inclination — which looks from a distance like freedom — is, from inside, the most constricting thing imaginable. The person on it is controlled by everything. The way that requires discipline and sacrifice — which looks from outside like constraint — is, from inside, the way of the person who is controlled by nothing external.
The seeming and the being are reversed. Recognize which you are choosing.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.