Didymus the Blind : By "town" he does not mean a place but the deed according to the law. The fool does "not even know the way to town." But the one who says, "Even if we live on earth, our citizenship is in heaven," "knows the way to the town" in which he is a true citizen. And further: "As we have heard, so we have received in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God." — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 308:1 Jerome : "The toil of fools exhausts them, as one who does not know the way to town. "Join these lines with the verse above; either to those verses that speak in general about fools, who know not God, or in particular to that one which argues about heretics. Read in Plato for example: unravel the tricks of Aristotle, read Zeno and Carneas more diligently, and you will prove to be true what is written here: the toil of fools exhausts them. For they seek the truth in fact with all their enthusiasm, but since they have no leader or anyone to lead the way on their journey, they are led by their human instincts to think that they can understand wisdom, and thus they do not arrive at the town; the Psalm speaks of this too: "Lord, you will scatter their image in your town" [Ps. 72, 20.]. For the Lord will scatter in the town all shadows and strange appearances or characters, in which they clothe themselves in their many doctrines. In another place the Psalm says of this: "the force of a river causes the city of God to rejoice" [Ps. 45, 5.]. And in the Gospel: "a town built on a mountain cannot be hidden" [Matth. 5, 14.]. And in Isaiah: "I am a strong city, a city which is attacked" [Is. 27, 3. (According to the LXX.)]. And all the wise men and heretics of this world are trying to attack this city of truth and wisdom, although it is strong and fortified. And that which I have said about philosophers can also be said of heretics, that they toil in vain, and are exhausted in their enthusiasm for the Scriptures, when they wander in the desert and are not able to find the town. The Psalmist also mentions their madness too, saying, "they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in." [Ps. 107, 4.] — Commentary on Ecclesiastes John Cassian : It is we, who make rough with the nasty and hard stones of our desires the right and smooth paths of the Lord; who most foolishly forsake the royal road made stony with the flints of apostles and prophets, and trodden down by the footsteps of all the saints and of the Lord Himself, and seek trackless and thorny places, and, blinded by the allurements of present delights, tear our way with torn legs and our wedding garment rent, through dark paths, overrun with the briars of sins, so as not only to be pierced by the sharp thorns of the brambles but actually laid low by the bites of deadly serpents and scorpions lurking there. For "there are thorns and thistles in wrong ways, but he that feareth the Lord shall keep himself from them." And thus wandering from the king's highway, they can never arrive at that metropolis, whither our course should ever be directed without swerving. And this also Ecclesiastes has pretty significantly expressed saying: "The labour of fools wearies those who know not how to go to the city;" viz., that "heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all." — CONFERENCE 24:24