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Put yourself in a position in which you have the power to take advantage, but refrain when you have your fair share, so that men may think that you strive for justice, not from weakness, but from a sense of equity. Prefer honest poverty to unjust wealth;1 for justice is better than riches in that riches profit us only while we live, while justice provides us glory even after we are dead, and while riches are shared by bad men, justice is a thing in which the wicked can have no part.2
1 Cf. Theog. 145-8: βούλεο δ᾽ εὐσεβέων σὺν χρήμασιν οἰκεῖν ἢ πλουτεῖν, ἀδίκως χρημάτα πασάμενος. ἐν δὲ δικαιοσύνῃ συλλήβδην πᾶσ᾽ ἀρετή ἐστιν, πᾶς δέ τ᾽ ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός, Κύρνε, δίκαιος ἐών..
2 Cf. Isoc. 2.32; Theog. 315-18: πολλοέ τοι πλουτοῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται: ἀλλ᾽ ἡμεῖς τούτοις οὐ διαμειψόμεθα τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτιν, ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεί, χρήματα δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει.
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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