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[16]
Harsh language! This is much more harsh, “Let the
worthless, and wicked, and impious be saved; let the innocent, the honorable,
the virtuous, the whole republic be destroyed.” In the case of one
individual, O Quintus Fufius, I confess that you saw more than I did. I thought
Publius Clodius a mischievous, wicked, lustful, impious, audacious, criminal
citizen. You, on the other hand, called him religious, temperate, innocent,
modest; a citizen to be preserved and desired. In this one particular I admit
that you had great discernment, and that I made a great mistake. For as for your
saying that I am in the habit of arguing against you with ill temper, that is
not the case. I confess that I argue with vehemence, but not with ill temper. I
am not in the habit of getting angry with my friends every now and then, not
even if they deserve it.
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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