[P]ythagoras was not an extremist. He taught moderation in all things rather than excess in anything, for he believed that an excess of virtue was in itself a vice. One of his favorite statements was: "We must avoid with our utmost endeavor, and amputate with FIRE and SWORD and by all other means, from the body, sickness; from the soul, ignorance; from the belly, luxury; from a city, sedition; from a family, discord; and from all things, excess." Pythagoras also believed that there was no crime equal to that of
anarchy.
ALL MEN [K]now what they WANT, but FEW know what they NEED. Pythagoras warned his disciples that when they prayed they should not pray for themselves; that when they asked things of the gods they should not ask things for themselves, because no man knows what is good for him and it is for this reason undesirable to ask for things which, if obtained, would only PROVE to be INJURIOUS.
GOSPEL OF SAINT THOMAS
"Jesus said, ‘Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: FIRE, SWORD, and WAR. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary.’” (16)