Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
One goes astray with impunity only so long as one does not transgress — although to go astray is itself already to transgress; one wanders with impunity, I mean, only so long as one abandons nothing. But if I have believed what I ought to have believed and then think something further must be sought, I must be hoping there is something further to be found — and I could have no such hope at all unless either I had not really believed what I seemed to believe, or I had ceased to believe it. Thus, in abandoning my faith, I stand exposed as one who has denied it. Let me say it once for all: no one seeks except the man who either never had a thing, or has lost it. That old woman had lost one of her ten drachmas, and that is why she searched; but once she found it, she stopped searching. The neighbor did not have bread, and that is why he knocked; but the instant that door swung wide and the loaf was handed over, his knuckles fell still. The widow kept asking the judge to hear her, because she was not being admitted; but once she was heard, that was the end of her insisting. So there is indeed an end to seeking, and to knocking, and to asking. For 'it shall be given to him who asks,' he says, 'and it shall be opened to him who knocks, and he who seeks shall find.' Let him see to it, the man who is always seeking, that he has not found — for he is seeking where he will never find. Let him see to it, the man who is always knocking, that the door will never be opened — for he is knocking where no one is. Let him see to it, the man who is always asking, that he will never be heard — for he is asking of one who does not listen.