1So let this road be abandoned, deserted and untended and now blocked with leaves and brushwood. 1Let some play be granted to youth; 1let young manhood be freer; 1let not everything be denied to pleasures; 1let not that true and straight reason always prevail; 1let desire and pleasure sometimes overcome reason, provided only that this rule and restraint is kept in such matters. 1Let youth spare its own chastity, let it not despoil another's, let it not squander its inheritance, let it not be butchered by interest, let it not assail another man's house and household, let it not bring disgrace on the chaste, stain on the upright, infamy on the good, let it terrify no one by force, let it take no part in plots, let it keep clear of crime.
1Finally, when it has given way to pleasures and devoted some time to the amusements of its age and to these empty desires of youth, let it at some point call itself back to the care of household affairs, of the forum, and of the state, so that what it had not seen through by reason before, it may seem to have cast aside through satiety and to have come to despise through experience. 43And many indeed, judges, both within our own memory and that of our fathers and ancestors, have been very great men and most distinguished citizens whose outstanding virtues, once the desires of youth had cooled, came to light when their age was now settled.
43Of these I do not care to name anyone; 43call them to mind among yourselves. 43For I do not wish to join even the smallest lapse of any brave and illustrious man with his very great glory. 43But if I wished to do so, many very great and highly honoured men would be cited by me, of whom some had excessive licence in their youth, others lavish extravagance, a mass of debt, expenditure and lusts would be named, things which, covered afterwards by many virtues, anyone who wished might defend with the excuse of youth.