על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ב י״בOn the Special Laws, Book II 12
א׳
1[42] When the law records that every day is a festival, it accommodates itself to the blameless life of righteous men who follow nature and her ordinances. And if only the vices had not conquered and dominated the thoughts in us which seek the truly profitable and dislodged them from each soul—if instead the forces of the virtues had remained unvanquished throughout, the time from birth to death would be one continuous feast, and houses and cities dwelling in security and leisure would have been full of all good things with everything tranquil around them.
ב׳
2[43] As it is, the overreaching and the assaults which men and women alike contrive against themselves and each other have cleft a breach in the continuous line of this cheerful gaiety. Here is a clear proof of what I am saying.
ג׳
3[44] All who practise wisdom, either in Grecian or barbarian lands, and live a blameless and irreproachable life, choosing neither to inflict nor retaliate injustice, avoid the gathering of busy-bodies and abjure the scenes which they haunt, such as law-courts, council-chambers, markets, congregations and in general any gathering or assemblage of careless men.
ד׳
4[45] Their own aspirations are for a life of peace, free from warring. They are the closest observers of nature and all that it contains; earth, sea, air and heaven and the various forms of being which inhabit them are food for their research, as in mind and thought they share the ranging of the moon and sun and the ordered march of the other stars fixed and planetary. While their bodies are firmly planted on the land they provide their souls with wings, so that they may traverse the upper air and gain full contemplation of the powers which dwell there, as behoves true “cosmopolitans” who have recognized the world to be a city having for its citizens the associates of wisdom, registered as such by virtue to whom is entrusted the headship of the universal commonwealth.