Ibid. Which having heard, ponder it in thy mind (Job 5:27). 64. It is a grave lack of skill to wish to teach one's better. However much a mind may abound in learning, it is a grave lack of skill to wish to teach one's better. Hence even those things which were rightly uttered by the friends are not judged right by the inward Judge. For they lose the force of their rectitude in this, that they do not suit the hearer; because medicines too lose their powers when they are applied to sound limbs. In everything therefore that is said, it is necessary that the cause, the time, and the person be weighed: whether the truth of the sentence gives strength to the words, whether a fitting time demands it, whether the quality of the person does not assail both the truth of the sentence and the fitness of the time.
For he shoots his arrows commendably who first looks upon the enemy whom he is to strike. For badly does he bend the horns of the strong bow, who, forcefully directing the arrow, strikes a fellow-citizen.