Philosophers also begin by believing
Next, since they keep harping on faith, we must say this. We accept faith as useful for the many, and we admit that we teach those who cannot leave everything and pursue the examination of reason to believe even without reason; they do not admit this, yet they do it in practice. For who, when he has been urged toward philosophy and has thrown himself, as if by lot, into some school of philosophers, or has come to it because he happened upon a particular teacher, comes to it for any other reason than that he believes that school to be better? For he does not wait to hear the arguments of all the philosophers and of the different schools, the refutation of some and the proof of others, and only then choose to be a Stoic, a Platonist, a Peripatetic, an Epicurean, or a member of any school of philosophers whatever. Rather, by some irrational impulse, even if they do not wish to admit it, they come to practise, say, the Stoic teaching, leaving the others aside; they look down on the Platonic as humbler than the rest, or on the Peripatetic as the most human of all, and as admitting human goods more candidly than the other schools.
And some, troubled at their first encounter with the question of providence by what happens on earth to the bad and to the good, have too hastily assented to the view that there is no providence at all, and have chosen the doctrine of Epicurus and Celsus.
Greek
Εἶτ᾿ ἐπεὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς πίστεως θρυλοῦσι, λεκτέον ὅτι ἡμεῖς μὲν παραλαμβάνοντες αὐτὴν ὡς χρήσιμον τοῖς πολλοῖς ὁμολογοῦμεν διδάσκειν πιστεύειν καὶ ἀλόγως τοὺς μὴ δυναμένους πάντα καταλιπεῖν καὶ ἀκολουθεῖν ἐξετάσει λόγου, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ὁμολογοῦντες τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτὸ ποιοῦσι. τίς γὰρ προτραπεὶς ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίαν καὶ ἀποκληρωτικῶς ἐπί τινα αἵρεσιν ἑαυτὸν φιλοσόφων ῥίψας ἢ τῷ εὐπορηκέναι τοιοῦδε διδασκάλου ἄλλως ἐπὶ τοῦτο ἔρχεται ἢ τῷ πιστεύειν τὴν αἵρεσιν ἐκείνην κρείττονα εἶναι; οὐ γὰρ περιμείνας ἀκοῦσαι τοὺς πάντων φιλοσόφων λόγους καὶ τῶν διαφόρων αἱρέσεων καὶ τὴν ἀνατροπὴν τροπὴν μὲν τῶνδε κατασκευὴν δὲ ἑτέρων, οὕτως αἱρεῖται ἤτοι Στωϊκὸς ἢ Πλατωνικὸς ἢ Περιπατητικὸς ἢ Ἐπικούρειος εἶναι ἢ ὁποιασδήποτε φιλοσόφων αἱρέσεως· ἀλλ᾿ ἀλόγῳ τινὶ, κἂν μὴ βούλωνται τοῦτο ὁμολογεῖν, φορᾷ ἔρχονται ἐπὶ τὸ ἀσκῆσαι. φέρ᾿ εἰπεῖν. τὸν Στωϊκὸν λόγον, καταλιπόντες τοὺς λοιπούς· τὸν Πλατωνικὸν ὑπερφρονήσαντες ὡς ταπεινότερον τῶν ἄλλων ἢ τὸν Περιπατητικὸν ὡς ἀνθρωπικώτατον καὶ μᾶλλον τῶν λοιπῶν αἱρέσεων εὐγνωμόνως ὁμολογοῦντα τὰ ἀνθρώπινα ἀγαθά. καὶ ἀπὸ πρώτης δὲ προσβολῆς ταραχθέντες τινὲς εἰς τὸν περὶ προνοίας λόγον ἐκ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς γινομένων φαύλοις καὶ σπουδαίοις προπετέστερον συγκατέθεντο τῷ μηδαμῶς εἶναι πρόνοιαν καὶ τὸν Ἐπικούρου καὶ Κέλσου εἵλοντο λόγον.