Then, again, while benefits will become fewer, they will be more genuine; but what harm is there in checking the reckless giving of benefits? For the very aim of those who have designed no law for this matter has been that we should be more cautious in making gifts, more cautious in picking those upon whom we bestow our favors. Consider again and again to whom you are giving: you will have no recourse to law, no claim to restitution. You are mistaken if you think that some judge will come to your aid; no law will restore you to your original estate — look only to the good faith of the recipient. In this way benefits maintain their prestige and are lordly; you disgrace them if you make them the ground of litigation. “Pay what you owe” is a proverb most just and one that is stamped with the approval of all nations; but in the case of a benefit it becomes most shameful. “Pay!” But what? Shall a man pay the life that he owes? The position? The security? The sound health? All the greatest benefits are incapable of being repaid. “Yet make some return for them,” you say, “that is of equal value.” But this is just what I was saying, that, if we make merchandise of benefits, all the merit of so fine an action will perish. The mind does not need to be incited to greed, to accusations, and to discord; it tends to these by a natural impulse. But, as far as we can, let us oppose it, and cut it off from the opportunities that it seeks.