...we see that people who are running after power suffer greatly. We suffer first in the chase, because so many people are struggling for the same thing. We believe that the power we are searching for is scarce and elusive and available only at the expense of someone else. But even if we achieve power, we never feel powerful enough.
Human suffering has been caused because too many of us cannot grasp that words are only tools for our use, and that the mere presence in the dictionary of a word like "living" does not mean it necessarily has to refer to something definite in the real world.
...Men whom success has made unbridled and overconfident should be led into the training-ring of reason and learning, so that they perceive the frailty of human affairs and the variability of fortune.
...We should not listen to those who think we should be deeply angry with our opponents, and consider that this is what a great-spirited and courageous man does. For nothing is more to be praised, nothing more worthy of a great and splendid man than to be easily appeased and forgiving.
In general those who are about to take charge of public affairs should hold fast to Plato's two pieces of advice: first to fix their gaze so firmly on what is beneficial to the citizens that whatever they do, they do with that in mind, forgetful of their own advantage. Secondly, let them care for the whole body of the republic rather than protect one part and neglect the rest.
The Stoics define courage will when they call it the virtue which fights on behalf of fairness...a spirit which is ready to face danger, but is driven by selfish desire rather than common benefit should be called not courage, but audacity...it is a hateful fact that loftiness and greatness of spirit all too easily give birth to willfulness and excessive desire for pre-eminence...the loftier a man's spirit, the more easily he is driven by desire for glory to injustice. This is slippery ground indeed: scarcely a man can be found who, when he has undertaken toil and confronted dangers, does not yearn for glory as a kind of payment for his achievements.
