1Has that man of yours already persuaded you that he is a good man? 1And yet a good man can neither be made nor recognised so quickly. 1Do you know what sort of man I now call good? 1One of the second rank. 1For that other kind is perhaps born, like the phoenix, once in five hundred years. 1Nor is it surprising that great things are produced at long intervals; 1fortune often brings forth the ordinary things that are born in multitudes, but the exceptional it commends by their very rarity. 2But that man is still far from what he professes. 2And if he knew what a good man was, he would not yet believe himself to be one; perhaps he would even despair of being able to become one.
2'But he thinks ill of the wicked.' 2The wicked do this too, and there is no greater punishment for wickedness than that it displeases itself and its own. 3'But he hates those who use great and sudden power without restraint.' 3He will do the same when he has the same power. 3In many men, because they are weak, their vices lie hidden, though they will dare no less, once their strength has come to please them, than those vices which prosperity has already laid open. 4They lack the means of unfolding their wickedness. 4In the same way even a deadly snake is handled safely while it is stiff with cold; 4it does not lack its venom then, but the venom is numb.
4In many men cruelty and ambition and luxury lack only the favour of fortune to dare deeds equal to those of the worst. 4That they want the same things you will soon learn in this way: give them the power to do as much as they wish. 5You remember that, when you were declaring that a certain man was in your power, I said that he was flighty and fickle, and that you were holding not his foot but a feather. 5Did I lie? 5You were holding him by a plume, which he let go, and fled. 5You know what games he played on you afterwards, how many things he attempted that were to fall upon his own head.
5He did not see that through endangering others he was rushing into danger himself. 5He did not consider how burdensome were the things he sought, even if they had not been superfluous. 6And so in the things we strive after, towards which we press with great effort, we ought to look into this: either there is no advantage in them, or more disadvantage. 6Some things are superfluous, some are not worth so much. 6But we do not see this clearly, and things seem free to us which cost us very dear. 7Our stupidity may be seen from this, that we think only those things are bought for which we pay money, and we call those things free for which we spend ourselves.
7Things which we would refuse to buy if we had to give our house for them, or some pleasant or profitable estate, we are quite ready to reach at the cost of anxiety, of danger, of the loss of honour and freedom and time; 7so true is it that nothing is cheaper to each man than himself. 8So let us do in all our plans and affairs the same thing that we usually do whenever we approach a dealer in some ware; 8let us see at what price this thing we covet is offered. 8Often the highest price is one for which no money changes hands. 8I can show you many things which, once acquired and received, have wrung our freedom from us; 8we would belong to ourselves if these things did not belong to us.
9Turn these thoughts over, then, by yourself, not only when it is a question of gain but also when it is a question of loss. 9'This is going to perish.' 9Yes, it came from outside; 9you will live without it as easily as you lived before. 9If you have had it long, you lose it after you have had your fill of it; 9if not long, you lose it before you have grown used to it. 9'You will have less money.' 9Yes, and less trouble too. 10'Less influence.' 10Yes, and less envy too. 10Look around at those things which drive us to madness, which we lose with floods of tears; 10you will find that it is not the loss in them that is troublesome but the opinion of loss.
10No one feels that they are gone; he only thinks so. 10He who has himself has lost nothing. 10But how few have had the good fortune to possess themselves? 10Farewell.