Guess the source . . .

[Climacus]

Who can identify the author of the following quote without recourse to Google?

'My understanding is a shadowy thing at best, as equivocal as a dream . . .'

[Climacus]

Here's more of the same, and a much bigger hint:

Love will help our mortal nature more than all the world. And this is why I say that everyman of us should worship the god of love, and this is why I cultivate and worship all the elements of Love, and bid others do the same. And all my life I shall pay the power and might of Love such homage as I can.

[Jair]

The use of the term 'everyman' makes me think its pretty modern, but the sentence construction sounds very off for a modern writer. Take this part for instance:

"And this is why I say that [...] and this is why I cultivate [...]"

It sounds like classical philosophical discourse, which would make it at least a thousand years old. But its pretty easy to eliminate Arabic and Jewish philosophy because of the subject matter. Ancient Christian philosophy is a non-no because of the overtly individual nature of the quote. Chinese philosophy doesn't fit either, because of the very Western use of first person. So we're left with Indian and Greek philosophy, or possibly an early Christian heretic. But it's pretty easy to take out Indian philosophy, again because of subject matter.

Now, it is pretty obvious that the quote is some sort of translation (Greek or Latin). I'll eliminate the Christian heretic because it seems unlikely (and because I don't know much about early Christian heretics). So all that's left is Greek philosophers or possibly a very modern writer experimenting with narration. But Greek philosophers fits perfectly because this sounds like Platonic love, plus the word god is used in the Greek sense. So I'm going to guess either Plato or a later Greek philosopher.

[Charles Darnay]

You are right, it is Classical Greek.