Dionysius of Alexandria

In his own words on Ecclesiastes

• Ecclesiastes 3:4

  "A time to weep, and a time to laugh." A time to weep, when it is the time of suffering; as when the Lord also says, "Verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament." But to laugh, as concerns the resurrection: "For your sorrow," He says, "shall be turned into joy."

  A Commentary on the Beginning of Ecclesiastes - Chapter III

• Ecclesiastes 3:7

  "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak." A time to speak, when there are hearers who receive the word; but a time to keep silence, when the hearers pervert the word; as Paul says: "A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject."

  A Commentary on the Beginning of Ecclesiastes - Chapter III

• Ecclesiastes 3:11

  Of all these things there is not one either idle or useless. Not even the meanest of them—the hair, or the nails, or such like—is so; but all have their service to do, and all their contribution to make, some of them to the soundness of bodily constitution and others of them to beauty of appearance. For Providence cares not only for the useful but also for the seasonable and beautiful.

  FRAGMENT 1:4