Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. - Cicero

Thus, being ignorant of its nature, the masses suppose that men of wealth, influence, and important family connections are the best...as a result of this error on the part of the commons, the wealth rather than the excellence of a few men has come to control the state

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?

(When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?)

Il me semble que cette méditation anticipée des malheurs humains produit presque le même effet que la guérison obtenue avec le temps, sinon que, dans le premier cas, c'est le raisonnement qui guérit, et dans le second, la nature ; mais on comprend l'essentiel, à savoir que le mal tenu pour le plus grand de tous n'est jamais si grand qu'il puisse détruire la vie heureuse.