No emulation doth my spirits fire,
The actions of the Gods I don’t admire.
I would not, to be great, a tyrant be;
The least appearances I would not see.
But one of Thasis, another of Chios, one of Galatia, and a fourth of
Bithynia, not contenting themselves with the rank they enjoyed amongst
their fellow-citizens, where they had honor and commands, complain
that they have not foreign characters and are not made patricians of
Rome; and if they attain that dignity, that they are not praetors; and
if they arrive even to that degree, they still think themselves ill
dealt with that they are not consuls; and when promoted to the fasces,
that they were declared the second, and not the first. And what is all
this but ungratefully accusing Fortune, and industriously picking out
occasions to punish and torment ourselves? But he that is in his right
senses and wise for his own advantage, out of those many millions which
the sun looks upon,