Some men, have been so brutalized by envy and want and are so hostile that they wage war, not on depravity, but on prosperity

Some men, have been so brutalized by envy and want and are so hostile that they wage war, not on depravity, but on prosperity. They hate not only the best men but the noblest pursuits and, in addition to their other faults, they take sides with wrong-doers and are in sympathy with them, while they destroy, whenever they have the power, those whom they have cause to envy. Isocrates quoting an associate. Antidosis. Speech 15. Section 142.

Image: Remnants of a Roman bust of a youth with a blond beard, perhaps depicting emperor Commodus, photographed at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens by Giovanni Dall'Orto courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.