For not he that commendeth himself is approved “For it is easy to impose upon men by a false impression, and this is matter of every day occurrence. Let us, therefore, leaving off all other things, aim exclusively at this — that we may be approved by God, and may be satisfied to have his approbation alone, as it justly ought to be regarded by us as of more value than all the applauses of the whole world. There was one that said, that to have Plato’s favorable judgment was to him worth a thousand. (791) The question here is not as to the judgment of mankind, in respect of the superiority of one to another, but as to the sentence of God himself, who has it in his power to overturn all the decisions that men have pronounced.
(791) The expression referred to occurs in the writings of Cicero. “ Plato mihi unus est instar omnium;” — “Plato, even singly, is to me equal to all.” — (Cic. Brut. 51.) Cicero says elsewhere, that “he would rather err with Plato than think rightly with others.” — (Cic. Tusc. 1:17.) — Ed.