[6]
But as it is, who would not be disheartened when he sees those who lived in the time of the Trojan war, and even earlier,1 celebrated in song and tragedy, and yet foresees that even if he himself surpass their valorous achievements he will never be thought worthy of such praise? The cause of this is envy, which has this as its only good—it is the greatest evil to those who feel it. For some are so ungenerous by nature that they would listen more gladly to the praise of men of whose existence they are uncertain rather than of those who may have been their own benefactors.
1 e.g. Heracles, Theseus, and the Argonauts.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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