1Therefore, since those who are eager for power have this in common with those men of leisure whom I mentioned, the one group think they can attain it if they have great wealth, the other if they are content with their own and with little. 1In this the opinion of neither group is wholly to be despised; but the life of men of leisure is easier and safer and less burdensome or troublesome to others, while the life of those who have applied themselves to the state and to the conduct of great affairs is more fruitful for the human race and better suited to fame and greatness. 71Wherefore perhaps we should grant this to those who do not take part in public affairs, who with outstanding talent have devoted themselves to learning, and to those who, hindered either by weakness of health or by some weightier cause, have withdrawn from the state, conceding to others the power and the credit of running it.
71But those who have no such cause, if they say that they despise what most people admire, commands and magistracies, should, I think, have this counted not only as no credit to them but even as a fault; 71their judgement, in so far as they despise glory and count it as nothing, is difficult not to approve; 71but they seem to fear toils and troubles, and also the disgrace, as it were, and infamy of offence and defeat at the polls. 71For there are those who in opposite circumstances are hardly consistent with themselves: they despise pleasure most sternly, but are too soft in pain; they disregard glory, but are broken by ill repute, and that too with no great consistency.
72But those who have from nature the gifts for managing affairs should cast off all hesitation and seek magistracies and take part in governing the state; 72for in no other way can a state be governed or greatness of spirit be displayed. 72Those who take up public affairs, moreover, no less than philosophers, and perhaps even more, must bring to it both magnificence and that disdain for human things of which I often speak, and tranquillity of mind and freedom from care, if indeed they are to be free from anxiety and to live with dignity and constancy. 73These things are easier for philosophers, in that fewer things in their lives lie open for fortune to strike, and in that they need fewer things, and because, if anything adverse should happen, they cannot fall so heavily.
73Therefore, not without reason, greater passions are stirred in the minds of those who govern the state than of those at rest, and greater zeal for achievement, so that they all the more must bring both greatness of spirit and freedom from anxieties. 73But whoever approaches public affairs should take care not to consider only how honourable the undertaking is, but also whether he has the ability to carry it through; 73and in this very point he must take care that he neither despairs rashly from cowardice nor is overconfident from ambition. 73In all undertakings, moreover, before you set about them, careful preparation must be applied.