1Consider: in this city, where a crowd flowing without pause through the broadest streets is crushed whenever something stands in the way to check its course like a rushing torrent, where the seats of three theatres are in demand at the same time, where whatever is ploughed in all lands is consumed, what a solitude and wasteland there would be if nothing were left except what a severe judge would acquit. 2How few of the investigators are there who are not liable under the very law by which they investigate? 2how few accusers are free from guilt? 2And I rather think no one is harder in granting pardon than the man who has more often deserved to ask for it.
3We have all sinned, some gravely, some more lightly, some on purpose, some driven by chance or carried away by another's wickedness; 3some of us have stood too feebly by good resolutions and have lost our innocence unwillingly and while clinging to it; 3and not only have we done wrong, but we shall go on doing wrong to the very end of life. 4Even if someone has already cleansed his mind so well that nothing can disturb or deceive him any more, still he has arrived at innocence by way of sinning.