Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book I/Chapter XII

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Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VI, Adversus Gentes, Book I
by Arnobius, translated by Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell
Chapter XII
158674Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. VI, Adversus Gentes, Book I — Chapter XIIHamilton Bryce and Hugh CampbellArnobius

12. It is rather presumptuous, when you are not your own master, even when you are the property of another, to dictate terms to those more powerful; to wish that that should happen which you desire, not that which you have found fixed in things by their original constitution. Wherefore, if you wish that your complaints should have a basis, you must first inform us whence you are, or who you are; whether the world was created and fashioned for you, or whether you came into it as sojourners from other regions. And since it is not in your power to say or to explain for what purpose you live beneath this vault of heaven, cease to believe that anything belongs to you; since those things which take place are not brought about in favour of a part, but have regard to the interest of the whole.