[94]
When I see a ship holding on its course with favourable winds, if it does not
proceed towards that port which I at one time thought best, but to some
other no less safe and tranquil than that, shall I rather strive with the
tempest even at the risk of danger, instead of yielding to it and being
guided by it, especially when there is a hope of safety in such a line of
conduct? But I have learnt these principles, I have seen and read them in
books, written records have handed down to us these memorials of wise and
most illustrious men, both in this republic and in other cities, and show
that the same opinions have not at all times been upheld by the same men,
but that they have adopted whatever sentiments the constitution of the
republic, the state of affairs at the time, and the considerations of peace
and concord pointed out as desirable. And this is what I am doing, O
Laterensis, and what I always shall do; and the independence which you
profess to look for in me, and which I have never lost, I never will lose,
and yet on the other hand I will not believe it to consist in obstinacy, but
in moderation.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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