1This doctrine Cato, a most talented man, led on by most learned authorities, has seized upon, not for the sake of argument, as most do, but in order to live by it. 1The tax-farmers ask for something; 1take care that favour has no weight at all. 1Some suppliants come, wretched and unfortunate; 1you will be wicked and abominable if you do anything moved by pity. 1Someone confesses that he has done wrong and asks pardon for his fault; 1'to pardon is an abominable crime.' 1But the fault is slight. 1'All faults are equal.' 1You have said something: 'it is fixed and settled.' 1You were led not by fact but by opinion; 1'the wise man never conjectures.' 1You have made a mistake in some matter; 1he thinks he is being insulted.
1From this school come those words of ours: 'I said in the senate that I would prosecute a consular candidate.' 1You said it in anger. 1'The wise man,' he says, 'is never angry.' 1But you said it to suit the occasion. 1'It is the mark of a wicked man,' he says, 'to deceive by a lie; 1to change one's opinion is shameful, to yield to entreaty a crime, to pity an outrage.' 63But those teachers of ours — for I shall admit, Cato, that I too in my youth, distrusting my own abilities, sought the aid of learning — those teachers of ours, I say, the followers of Plato and Aristotle, men of moderation and restraint, say that favour sometimes has weight with the wise man; 63that it is the part of a good man to feel pity; 63that there are distinct kinds of offence and different penalties; 63that a steadfast man has room for pardon; 63that the wise man himself often holds an opinion on something he does not know, is sometimes angry, can be won over by entreaty and appeased, sometimes changes what he has said if that is more right, and occasionally departs from his opinion; 63that all virtues are kept in check by a certain mean.