The Divine Letters of the Great Marsilio Ficino, Volume 1

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...[and just as mariners] reach a prosperous and secure port in their navigations, so too a prudent and expert military captain most securely dispatches everything belonging to the art of warfare. And a wise physician, better than any other, leads a man to the desired health of the body; thus wisdom alone is that which, in every human endeavor, allows us to acquire what we desire, and this wisdom is never lost or deceived by others. Therefore, since wisdom is the cause of achieving our goal, it is necessary that she does everything and is capable of doing everything to lead us to the attainment of happiness Ficino uses "felicità" (happiness) here in the Aristotelian sense of "eudaimonia"—not just a feeling, but a state of flourishing..

Beyond this, only those who possess many goods are called blessed original: "beati", and yet such people cannot be so named if those goods they possess do not actually benefit them; nor can they ever benefit them if they do not use them or avail themselves of them. For the possession of goods without their use has no power to grant us this happiness, yet even use alone is not enough. Because one might find someone who uses these goods in wicked deeds; from which it follows that he is not only without benefit, but is gravely harmed by them.

And so, just as we said above that use must be added to possession, we now say that goodness Bontà (Goodness): For Ficino, this is the moral application of wisdom that ensures one's actions align with divine justice. must be added to use, through which we do not only use these goods, but use them well, justly, and holily; and in doing this, wisdom alone is that which can help us. This can be easily recognized as true when considering any craft, in which only those who are trained and learned in that art know how to use both the material and the tools employed for such work; and in this same way,

sapienza (wisdom), felicità (happiness), prudenza (prudence), medicina (medicine), beni (goods), uso (use), bontà (goodness), operazione (operation/endeavor)