Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.56
56.1. All the other matters that are usually tossed in questions and controversies—from what parents they arise or by what authors they are made—we neither strive to know nor care to inquire or investigate: we leave all things to their own causes and do not judge them joined and applied to that which we seek.
2. For what is there that human wits do not dare to shake and dissolve in the zeal of contradiction, even if what they try to weaken is pure and clear and fortified by the seal of truth? Or what again can they not assert with plausible arguments, though it be most openly false, though an evident and plain lie? For when someone has persuaded himself that a thing is or is not, he loves to assert what he opines and to outstrip others in acumen, especially if the matter is remote and hidden and wrapped in nature’s fog.
3. Some of the wise judge the world neither to have been born nor to be about to perish in any time; some call it immortal though they write that it was born and begotten; to a third it is pleasing to say that it was both born and begotten and will perish by ordinary necessity. And though of these three opinions one must be true, still all have arguments by which they confirm their own decrees and snatch away and weaken others’ opinions.
4. This same world some hand down as standing from four elements, others from two, a third from single ones; there are who say that from none of these, but that indivisible bodies are its matter and first origin. And though of these one sentence is true, yet none of them is certain; here too arguments are ready for all, by which they establish what they say as true and refute falsities set in others’ opinions.
5. So also some deny gods altogether; others say they doubt whether they are anywhere; others that they exist and do not care for human things; still others allege that they both take part in mortal affairs and administer earthly reckonings.
Latin
56.1. Caetera quaecumque sunt alia, quae in quaestionibus adsolent controversiisque versari, quibus genitoribus orta sint vel quibus auctoribus fiant, neque nosse contendimus neque inquirere aut vestigare curamus: suis omnia relinquimus causis nec ad id quod expetimus esse nobis adiuncta atque adplicata iudicamus.
2. Quid est enim, quod humana ingenia labefactare, dissolvere studio contradictionis non audeant, quamvis illud quod infirmare moliuntur sit purum et liquidum et veritatis obsignatione munitum? Aut quid rursus adserere verisimilibus argumentis non queunt, quamvis sit apertissime falsum, quamvis evidens manifestumque mendacium? Cum enim sibi persuaserit quis, esse aliquid aut non esse, amat quod opinatur adserere et acumine alios anteire, maxime si agatur res submota et abdita et caligine involuta naturae.
3. Mundum quidam ex sapientibus aestimant neque esse natum neque ullo esse in tempore periturum; immortalem nonnulli, quamvis eum conscribant esse gnatum et genitum; tertiis vero conlibitum dicere est, et esse natum et genitum et ordinaria necessitate periturum. Et cum ex istis opinionibus trinis unam esse necesse sit veram, cunctis tamen argumenta non desunt quibus et sua decreta confirment et aliorum subripiant et labefaciant scita.
4. Eundem hunc alii elementis ex quatuor tradunt et pronuntiant stare, ex geminis alii, ex singulis tertii, sunt qui ex his nullo set individua corpora eius esse materiem et primam originem dicant. Cumque ex his vera sit una sententia, at nulla ex his certa, similiter hic quoque argumenta omnibus praesto sunt, quibus et ea quaedicunt vera esse constituant et redarguant positas in aliorum sententiis falsitates.
5. Sic et deos nonnulli esse abnegant prorsus dubitare se alii an sint uspiam dicunt; alii vero existere neque humana curare: immo alii perhibent et rebus interesse mortalium et terrenas administrare rationes.