ys are there by which we can repay what
we owe even to the affluent--for instance, by honest advice, by constant
intercourse, by courteous conversation, pleasing him without flattering
him, by listening attentively to any subject which he may wish to
discuss, by keeping safe any secret that he may impart to us, and by
social intercourse. There is no one so highly placed by fortune as not
to want a friend all the more because he wants nothing.

XXX. The other is a melancholy opportunity, and one which we ought
always to pray may be kept far from us: must the gods be angry with
a man in order that you may prove your gratitude to him? Do you not
perceive that you are doing wrong, from the very fact that those to
whom you are ungrateful fare better? Call up before your mind dungeons,
chains, wretchedness, slavery, war, poverty: these are the opportunities
for which you pray; if any one has any dealings with you, it is by means
of these that you square your account. Why not rather wish that he to
whom you owe most may be powerful and happy? for, as I have just said,
what is there to prevent your returning the kindness even of those
who enjoy the greatest prosperity? to do which, ample and various
opportunities will present themselves to you, What! do you not know that
a debt can be paid even to a rich man? Nor will I trouble you with many
instances of what you may do. Though a man's riches and prosperity may
prevent your making him any other repayment, I will show you what the
highest in the land stand in need of, what is wanting to those who
possess everything. They want a man to speak the truth, to save them
from the organized mass of falsehood by which they are beset, which so
bewilders them with lies that the habit of hearing only what is pleasant
instead of what is true, prevents their knowing what truth really is. Do
you not see how such persons are driven to ruin by the want of candour
among their friends, whose loyalty has degenerated into slavish
obsequiousness? No one, when giving them his advice, tells them what he
really thinks, but each vies with the other in flattery; and while the
man's friends make it their only object to see who can most pleasantly
deceive him, he himself is ignorant of his real powers, and, believing
himself to be as great a man as he is told that he is, plunges the State
in useless wars, which bring disasters upon it, breaks off a useful and
necessary peace, and, through a passion of anger