ngs will be prosperous,
perfect, and as you would have them; and consequently happy: but virtue is
sufficient for living with courage, and therefore virtue is able by
herself to make life happy. For as folly, even when possessed of what it
desires, never thinks it has acquired enough: so wisdom is always
satisfied with the present, and never repents on her own account.

XIX. Look but on the single consulship of Laelius,--and that, too, after
having been set aside (though when a wise and good man, like him, is
outvoted, the people are disappointed of a good consul, rather than he
disappointed by a vain people); but the point is, would you prefer, were
it in your power, to be once such a consul as Laelius, or be elected four
times, like Cinna? I have no doubt in the world what answer you will make,
and it is on that account I put the question to you.

I would not ask every one this question; for some one perhaps might answer
that he would not only prefer four consulates to one, but even one day of
Cinna's life to whole ages of many famous men. Laelius would have suffered
had he but touched any one with his finger; but Cinna ordered the head of
his colleague consul, Cn. Octavius, to be struck off; and put to death P.
Crassus(107) and L. Caesar,(108) those excellent men, so renowned both at
home and abroad; and even M. Antonius,(109) the greatest orator whom I
ever heard; and C. Caesar, who seems to me to have been the pattern of
humanity, politeness, sweetness of temper, and wit. Could he, then, be
happy who occasioned the death of these men? So far from it, that he seems
to be miserable, not only for having performed these actions, but also for
acting in such a manner, that it was lawful for him to do it, though it is
unlawful for any one to do wicked actions; but this proceeds from
inaccuracy of speech, for we call whatever a man is allowed to do,
lawful.--Was not Marius happier, I pray you, when he shared the glory of
the victory gained over the Cimbrians with his colleague Catulus (who was
almost another Laelius, for I look upon the two men as very like one
another,) than when, conqueror in the civil war, he in a passion answered
the friends of Catulus, who were interceding for him, "Let him die"? And
this answer he gave, not once only, but often. But in such a case, he was
happier who submitted to that barbarous decree than he who issued it. And
it is better to receive an injury than to do one; and so it was better to