1But it is relevant to every inquiry into duty always to keep ready in mind how far the nature of man surpasses cattle and the other beasts; 1they feel nothing but pleasure and are borne towards it with every impulse, whereas the mind of man is nourished by learning and thinking, is always either investigating or doing something, and is led on by the delight of seeing and hearing. 1Indeed, if anyone is a little too inclined towards pleasures, provided he is not of the race of cattle (for some are men not in reality but in name), but if anyone stands a little higher, even though he is captivated by pleasure, he hides and conceals his appetite for pleasure out of modesty.
106From this it is understood that bodily pleasure is not sufficiently worthy of the excellence of man, and that it ought to be despised and rejected; 106but if there should be someone who sets some value on pleasure, he must carefully keep within limits in enjoying it. 106So let food and the care of the body be directed to health and strength, not to pleasure. 106And if we are willing to consider what excellence and dignity there is in our nature, we shall understand how shameful it is to dissolve in luxury and to live daintily and softly, and how honourable to live frugally, with self-restraint, austerely and soberly. 107We must also understand that we have been clothed by nature, as it were, with two characters; 107of these one is common, arising from the fact that we all share in reason and in that superiority by which we surpass the beasts, from which all that is honourable and fitting is derived, and from which the method of discovering duty is sought out; the other, however, is the one assigned specifically to individuals.
107For as in bodies there are great differences (some, we see, are strong in speed for running, others in strength for wrestling, and likewise in appearance some have dignity, others charm), so in minds there exist even greater varieties. 108In Lucius Crassus and in Lucius Philippus there was much wit, and still more, and more studied, in Gaius Caesar, son of Lucius; 108but in the same period there was remarkable severity in Marcus Scaurus and in the young Marcus Drusus, much cheerfulness in Gaius Laelius, and in his friend Scipio greater ambition and a more austere life. 108Among the Greeks, moreover, we have heard that Socrates was pleasant and witty, a man of playful conversation and in all his talk a dissembler, whom the Greeks called an eirōn; whereas Pythagoras and Pericles, we hear, attained the highest authority without any cheerfulness.
108We have heard that Hannibal among the Carthaginian generals, and Quintus Maximus among ours, were shrewd, readily able to conceal, keep silent, dissemble, lay ambushes and forestall the enemy's plans. 108In this kind the Greeks place Themistocles and Jason of Pherae before all others; 108and especially crafty and shrewd was the act of Solon, who, so that his own life might be safer and he might be of somewhat more service to the state, pretended to be mad. 109There are others very unlike these, straightforward and open. 109They think nothing should be done secretly, nothing by stratagem, being devotees of truth and enemies of deceit; and likewise there are others who would endure anything and be slaves to anyone, provided they obtain what they want, as we used to see in Sulla and Marcus Crassus.
109In this kind we have heard that the Spartan Lysander was most crafty and most patient, and that Callicratidas, who was admiral of the fleet next after Lysander, was the opposite; 109and likewise that in conversation another man, however powerful he may be, manages to seem just one of many; 109this we saw in Catulus, both the father and the son, and also in Quintus Mucius Mancia. 109I have heard from my elders that this same quality was found in Publius Scipio Nasica, but that his father, on the other hand, the man who punished the reckless designs of Tiberius Gracchus, had no affability in conversation, and for that very reason was great and famous.
109There are countless other differences of nature and character, though by no means deserving of censure.