Didymus the Blind : For most people it seems to be right to avoid the critique of a wise man, especially if they like to sin. Whoever desires amusement and sin avoids the person who wants to hinder it. Whoever has no insight is pleased with flatterers, preferring flattery to critique. It is the characteristic of the wise man that he criticizes the one he loves.… The flatterers sing in a certain way. Even when they give ethical speeches, they want to make their audience happy instead of looking out for their best interests. Such song is a speech that gives joy, but a rebuke helps one to find the right way. — COMMENTARY ON Ecclesiastes 202:2 Jerome : "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of enjoyment. ""Blessed", says the Saviour, "are the mourning, since they will be consoled". [Matth. 5, 5.] And Samuel mourned King Saul all the days of his life [Cfr I Reg. 16.] and Paul said he had mourned over those who did not want to repent their many sins [Cfr II Cor. 12, 21.]. Therefore the heart of a wise man goes to the house of such a man, who reproves himself when he is doing wrong, so that he brings forth tears and causes himself to weep for his own sins; and he does not go to the house of joy, where the learned man flatters and deceives, not changing the listeners so they are together as one, but asking for praise and applause from them. Such a teacher, who is rich in speeches and words, is mourned, and being filled by his knowledge, receives his consolation. Then the following verses agree with this explanation too, because he says: — Commentary on Ecclesiastes