Nor is it easy to find men who will go down to calamity's depths for a friend. Ennius, however, is right when he says: When Fortune's fickle the fai… - Cicero

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Nor is it easy to find men who will go down to calamity's depths for a friend. Ennius, however, is right when he says:

When Fortune's fickle the faithful friend is found;

yet it is on these two charges that most men are convicted of fickleness: they either hold a friend of little value when their own affairs are prosperous, or they abandon him when his are adverse. Whoever, therefore, in either of these contingencies, has shown himself staunch, immovable, and firm in friendship ought to be considered to belong to that class of men which is exceedingly rare — aye, almost divine.