“Whatever I have bestowed on my father,” you say, “even if it is great, falls short of the value of my father’s gift to me, for, if he had not begotten me there would be no gift.” Then, too, by this manner of reasoning, if anyone healed my father when he was sick and about to die, I shall not be able to bestow on him any benefit that will not be less than his to me; for my father would not have begotten me if he had not been healed. But take thought whether it would not be nearer the truth to count both what I have been able to do, and what I have done, as something of my own — the product of my own powers and of my own will. Consider what the fact of my birth is in itself — a small matter of uncertain character, with a like potentiality of good and evil, without doubt the first step to everything else, but not greater than everything else simply because it comes first.
I have saved the life of my father, and raised him to the highest position; I have made him the chief citizen of his city, and have not only made him famous by my own achievements, but also have provided him with a vast and easy opportunity, not less safe than it is glorious, of achieving something himself; I have loaded him with honors, with wealth, with everything that attracts the minds of men, and, although I had place above all others, I have taken a place below him. Let my father now say: “The very fact that you have been able to do these things is a gift from your father,” and I shall reply: “Yes, undoubtedly, if, in order to do all these things, it is only necessary to be born; but, if the factor that contributes least to successful living is being alive, and, if you have bestowed on me merely that which I have in common with wild beasts and some of the tiniest, even some of the foulest, creatures, then do not take credit to yourself for something that does not arise out of your benefits, even if it does not arise without them.”