IV Maccabees 8:23

23 Let us not oppose necessity, nor seek vain-glory by our own excruciation.

IV Maccabees 8:23 In-Context

21 And Divine Justice will pardon us if we fear the king through necessity.

22 Why withdraw ourselves from a most sweet life, and deprive ourselves of this pleasant world?

23 Let us not oppose necessity, nor seek vain-glory by our own excruciation.

24 The law itself is not forward to put us to death, if we dread torture.

25 Whence has such angry zeal taken root in us, and such fatal obstinacy approved itself to us, when we might live unmolested by the king?