These considerations, my dear Liberalis, I have thought necessary because, on the one hand, when speaking of insignificant benefits, I was forced to speak also of those that are supreme, and because, on the other, the abominable presumptuousness of the vice under consideration extends from these to all benefits. For, if a man scorns the highest benefits, to whom will he respond with gratitude, what gift will he deem either great or worthy of being returned? If a man denies that he has received from the gods the gift of life that he begs from them every day, to whom will he be indebted for his preservation, to whom for the breath that he draws? Whoever, therefore, teaches men to be grateful, pleads the cause both of men and of the gods, to whom, although there is no thing that they have need of since they have been placed beyond all desire; we can nevertheless offer our gratitude. No one is justified in making his weakness and his poverty an excuse for ingratitude, in saying: “What am I to do, and how begin? When can I ever repay to my superiors, who are the lords of creation, the gratitude that is due?” It is easy to repay it — without expenditure if you are miserly, without labor if you are lazy. In fact, the very moment you have been placed under obligation, you can match favor for favor with any man if you wish to do so; for he who receives a benefit gladly has already returned it.