IV Maccabees 2:14

14 It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.

IV Maccabees 2:14 In-Context

12 And it lords it over the love of parents toward their children, for they punish them for vice; and it domineers over the intimacy of friends, reproving them when wicked.

13 And think it not a strange assertion that reasoning can in behalf of the law conquer even enmity.

14 It alloweth not to cut down the cultivated herbage of an enemy, but preserveth it from the destroyers, and collecteth their fallen ruins.

15 And reason appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and slander.

16 For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.