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Perfection (τελειότης) in everything else that is measured by feeling is limited to some known limits... We learn about virtue (ἀρετή) from the Apostle that it has one limit of perfection - not to have a limit itself. Even the divine apostle himself, strong and lofty in mind, never stopped in the course of his career of virtue, reaching out to what was before (Phil. 3:13), because it was not safe for him to stop in this course. Why? Because every good by its nature has no limit, but is limited by approaching the opposite, for example, life - to death, light - to darkness. And in general, all good ends with everything that we imagine to be the opposite of good. Just as the end of life is the beginning of death, so a stop in the flow of virtue becomes the beginning of a flow along the path of vice. Therefore, our word does not lie when it claims that achieving perfection in virtue is impossible. With these words, Gregory begins one of his most famous works dedicated to the foundations of Christian spirituality, On the Life of Moses. It briefly presents the entire sum of Gregory's views and its biblical and philosophical premises. Gregory represents human life as a constant run, a constant journey, a constant movement. In doing so, he relies on his favorite quote from the letters of Paul (Phil. 3:12–13) 2, where the apostle speaks of the constant striving forward and forgetting the past and everything achieved, as well as the philosophical understanding of God as good, in which there is no opposite and which is therefore not limited by anything, and therefore inaccessible to understanding. Even if it has a clear goal, the pursuit of this good has no end, just as the good itself is endless. Therefore, for Gregory, human perfection lies precisely in constantly being on the road, without ever reaching the goal; and then “finding” itself consists of constantly finding itself in the search. This does not mean that we cannot gain anything at all, but rather that each acquisition is the beginning of the next search. Gregory builds his other important work on this thought - his commentary on the Song of Songs: What is newly comprehended is greater than everything comprehended before, however, it does not determine by itself what is sought, but the end of what is acquired serves as the beginning for those ascending to the acquisition of the highest. And the ascendant never stops, borrowing another beginning from one beginning, and the beginning of a greater one always does not end in itself, because the desire of the ascendant does not stop at what is known, but the soul, as a result of another, even greater desire, ascending in order to a new higher one, always moves from higher to higher to infinity (τὸ ἀόριστον) 3 . The purpose of the work I have undertaken is to study the very motive of the incomplete and never-ending human journey in its philosophical premises and implications. In separate chapters, I try to consider those works of the saint that are closely related to this topic (On virginity, On the beatitudes, On the inscription of the Psalms, On the constitution of man, On the Sixth Day, On the soul and resurrection, An accurate interpretation of Ecclesiastes, A refutation of Eunomius, On the life of Moses, An explanation of the Song of Songs), and also to trace the stages of its consistent development by Gregory. The introduction attempts to analyze the concept of infinity among ancient Greek and Christian philosophers before Gregory, and also provides an overview of relevant research and a brief description of Gregory's life, his writings and the publications in which they are available. De vita Moysis I: GNO VII/1, 3.6–4.2. This verse enjoyed the special love of Basil the Great (see, for example, Ep. 42 Ad Chitonem: PG 32, 348c-349a, etc.), as well as Origen (see especially In Num., hom. 17, 4: GCS, Origenes 7, 160, 26), who very likely became Gregory’s inspiration in this matter. See about this: R. E. Heine, Perfection in the Virtuous Life. A Study in the Relationship Between Edification and Polemical Theology in Gregory of Nyssas De Vita Moysis, Cambridge, Mass. 1975, p. 241–247. In Cant. hom. 8: GNO VI, 247, 9–18.