I wasted a lot of time chasing vanities, I spent my whole youth in useless pursuits, for I threw myself totally into learning doctrines whose wisdom was declared by God to be foolishness.
Then one day I seemed to awake from a deep sleep. As I turned my eyes to the wonderful light of evangelical truth, I understood the uselessness of the wisdom of the masters of schools of this world, made of nothing.
I bitterly regretted my miserable life and formulated a prayer. I asked to be shown a way that would open the interior life for me.
Saint Basil
Epistle 223, 2