[19]
For did not Pythagoras desire
that he should not be called a wise man, like the
sages who preceded him, but rather a student of
wisdom?1 But for my own part, conforming to the
language of every day, I have said time and again,
and shall continue to say, that Cicero was a perfect
orator, just as in ordinary speech we call our friends
good and sensible men, although neither of these
titles can really be given to any save to him that
has attained to perfect wisdom. But if I am called
upon to speak strictly and in accordance with the
most rigid laws of truth, I shall proclaim that I seek
to find that same perfect orator whom Cicero also
sought to discover.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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