Justin Martyr, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
I did not come to the Christian philosophy because I was tired of philosophy. I came because the schools could not give me what they promised, which was God. I tried them one after another. The Stoic I surrendered myself to had no knowledge of God, and he did not even know himself, and he said such instruction was unnecessary.1 The Peripatetic asked me to settle his fee in the first days, so that our intercourse might not be unprofitable, and for that reason I took him to be no philosopher at all.1
The Pythagorean asked whether I knew music, astronomy and geometry, and when I confessed my ignorance he sent me away. I could not endure the delay of all that study.2 So I went to the Platonists, whose fame was great. The perception of immaterial things overpowered me, and the contemplation of ideas gave my mind wings. In my stupidity I supposed I had become wise and expected at once to look upon God, for that is the end of Plato's philosophy.2
It was in that frame of mind that I went one day to a field near the sea, wishing to be alone, and an old man of meek and venerable bearing followed me at a little distance and spoke to me.3 What he said to me there, the prophets he sent me to, and the fire he kindled in my soul I have set down in the Dialogue with Trypho. From him I learned that the soul does not see God by its own nature, and that the prophets, who are older than all the Greek writers, foretold what Christ would do.
I did not leave philosophy. I found in the teaching of Christ the one philosophy that is safe and profitable. There was another thing that moved me, which I wrote of in the Second Apology. The Stoics, as far as their moral teaching went, were admirable, and so were the poets in some particulars, on account of the seed of reason implanted in every race of men.
Yet such men were hated and put to death, Heraclitus among them, and in our own time Musonius.4 The demons always see to it that anyone who lives a reasonable and earnest life and shuns vice is hated. Those who live by a part of the Word are hated, and how much more those who live by the knowledge of the whole Word, which is Christ.4 I saw this in the Christians themselves, who were slandered and put to death, yet did not fear to die.
I surrendered myself to a certain Stoic; and having spent a considerable time with him, when I had not acquired any further knowledge of God (for he did not know himself, and said such instruction was unnecessary), I left himDialogue with Trypho
the contemplation of ideas furnished my mind with wings, so that in a little while I supposed that I had become wise; and such was my stupidity, I expected forthwith to look upon God, for this is the end of Plato's philosophy.Dialogue with Trypho
a certain old man, by no means contemptible in appearance, exhibiting meek and venerable manners, followed me at a little distance.Dialogue with Trypho
those of the Stoic school--since, so far as their moral teaching went, they were admirable, as were also the poets in some particulars, on account of the seed of reason [the Logos] implanted in every race of men--were, we know, hated and put to deathThe Second Apology