“Hear, then, since we both agree that they are desirable, what reason I have for not including them in the number of goods, and in what respect my attitude toward them differs from yours. Place me in a house that is most sumptuous, place me where I may have gold and silver plate for common use; I shall not look up to myself on account of these things, which, even though they belong to me, are nevertheless no part of me. Take me to the Sublician Bridge [44] and cast me among the beggars; nevertheless I shall not find reason to look down upon myself because I sit in the company of those who stretch out their hands for alms. For what difference does it make whether a man lacks a piece of bread when he does not lack the possibility of dying? And what is the conclusion? I prefer that gorgeous house to the Bridge! Place me in the midst of sumptuous furnishings and the trappings of luxury; I shall not think myself one whit happier because I have a soft mantle, because my guests recline on purple. Change my mattress; I shall be not a whit more wretched if my wearied neck must rest on a handful of hay, if I shall sleep on a cushion [45] of the Circus with the stuffing spilling out through its patches of old cloth. And what is the conclusion? I prefer to display the state of my soul clad rather in the toga and shoes than showing naked shoulders and with cuts on my feet. Let all my days pass according to my desire, let new felicitations be added to the old; I shall not on this account be puffed up. Change this kindness of time to just the opposite; from this quarter and that let my soul be smitten by loss, by grief, by various adversities, let no hour lack some cause for complaint; I shall not for that reason call myself the most wretched of the wretched; I shall not for that reason curse any one day; for I have seen to it that for me no day shall be black. And what is the conclusion? I prefer to temper my joys, rather than to stifle my sorrows.
This is what a Socrates [46] will say to you: “Make me victor over the nations of the world, let the voluptuous car of Bacchus convey me in triumph from the rising [47] of the sun all the way to Thebes, let the kings of the nations seek laws from me; when from every side I shall be greeted as a god, I shall then most of all remember that I am a man. Then with such a lofty height connect straightway a headlong fall to altered fortune; let me be placed upon a foreign barrow, [48] to grace the procession of a proud and brutal victor; no whit more humble shall I be when I am driven in front of the chariot of another than when I stood erect upon my own.” And what is the conclusion? After all, I prefer to conquer rather than to be captured. The whole domain of Fortune I shall despise, but, if the choice be offered, I shall choose the better part of it. Whatever befalls me will turn into a good, but I prefer that what befalls me should be the more pleasant and agreeable things and those that will be less troublesome to manage. For while you are not to suppose that any virtue is acquired without effort, yet certain virtues need the spur, certain ones the bridle. Just as the body must be held back upon a downward path, and be urged up a steep ascent, so certain virtues follow the downward path, and certain others struggle up the hill. Would anyone doubt that patience, fortitude, and perseverance, and every virtue that pits itself against hardships and subdues Fortune must mount and strive and struggle? And tell me, is it not just as evident that liberality, moderation, and kindness take the downward path? In the case of these we must put a check, upon the soul for fear that it may slip, in the case of the others, with all our power we urge and spur it on. Therefore for poverty we shall make use of those more hardy virtues that know how to fight, for riches those more cautious virtues that advance on tiptoe and yet keep their balance. Since there exists this distinction between them, I prefer to appropriate for myself the virtues that can be practiced with comparative tranquility, rather than those whose exercise draws blood and sweat. “Consequently,” says the wise man, “I do not live one way and talk another, but I talk one way and you hear another — only the sound of my words reaches your ears, what they mean you do not inquire.”