1 The argument is exceedingly ridiculous, for reasoning doesn’t appear to rule over its own affections, but over those of the body, (WEB) 2 in such a way as that any one of you may not be able to root out desire, but reasoning will enable you to avoid being enslaved to it. (WEB) 3 One may not be able to root out anger from the soul, but it is possible to withstand anger. (WEB)
4 Maccabees 3:1–3
Semantically similar passages
4 Maccabees 2:3–5
3 For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he nullified by reasoning the stimulus of his emotions. (WEB) 4 It isn’t merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master. (WEB) 5 For instance, the law says, “You shall… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:5–7
5 Perhaps some may ask, “How is it, then, that reasoning, if it rules the emotions, isn’t also master of forgetfulness and ignorance?” They attempt a ridiculous argument. (WEB) 6 For reasoning does not rule over its own emotions, but over those that are contrary to just… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 2:17–19
17 Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning. (WEB) 18 For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the emotions, and to correct some and destroy others. (WEB) 19 For why else did our most… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:29–31
29 Reasoning, the universal farmer, purging and pruning each of these, tying up, watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections. (WEB) 30 For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the emotions. O… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 6:34–35
34 It is only fair that we should allow that the power belongs to reasoning, since it masters external miseries. (WEB) 35 It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so. I prove that reasoning has not only mastered pains, but that it is also superior to the pleasures, and withst… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 1:34–35
34 Hence it is, then, that when craving seafood, birds, four-footed animals, and all kinds of food which are forbidden to us by the law, we withhold ourselves through the mastery of reasoning. (WEB) 35 For the affections of our appetites are resisted by the temperate unde… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 3:17–19
17 For the temperate mind has power to conquer the pressure of the emotions, to quench the fires of excitement, (WEB) 18 and to wrestle down the pains of the body, however excessive, and through the excellency of reasoning, to spurn all the assaults of the emotions. (WEB) 19 But th… (WEB)
4 Maccabees 7:16–18
16 If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even to death, then certainly religious reasoning is ruler of the emotions. (WEB) 17 But perhaps some might say, “It is not all who conquer emotions, as not all possess wise reasoning.” (WEB) 18 But those who have meditat… (WEB)
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