[24] It is for this reason that it is written in the Curses “He shall not cause thee to rest, and there shall be no standing for the sole of thy feet,” and a little later “thy life shall be hanging before thine eyes” (Deut. 28:65, 66). For it is the nature of the foolish man to be ever moving contrary to right reason, and to be averse to rest and quietness, and never to plant himself firmly and fixedly on any principle. He has one set of views at one time, another set at another, and sometimes holds conflicting views about the same matters, though no fresh element has been introduced into them.
[25] He becomes great and small, foe and friend, and nearly every other pair of opposites in a moment of time. And, as the lawgiver said, his whole life is hanging, with no firm foothold, but always swept off its feet by interests drawing and dragging him in opposite directions.
[26] This is why the lawgiver says in another place that “he that hangeth on a tree is cursed of God” (Deut. 21:23), for, whereas it behoves us to hang upon God, the man of whom we are thinking suspended himself from his body, which is a log-like mass in us. By doing so he gave up hope and took desire in its place, a grievous evil in place of a supreme good. For hope, being an expectation of good things, fastens the mind upon the bountiful God; whereas desire, infusing irrational cravings, fastens it on the body, which Nature wrought as a receptacle and abode of pleasures.