On Benefits 5.15 ¶1–2 — Seneca

Seneca, On Benefits 5.15 ¶1–2

“In the same way,” argues our adversary, “that your school proves that no one is ungrateful, you afterwards prove that all men are ungrateful. For, as you say, all fools are bad men; he who has one vice has all vices; all men are both fools and bad men; therefore all men are ungrateful.” Well, what then? Are they not? Is not this the universal reproach of the human race? is there not a general complaint that benefits are thrown away, and that there are very few men who do not requite their benefactors with the basest ingratitude? Nor need you suppose that what we say is merely the grumbling of men who think every act wicked and depraved which falls short of an ideal standard of righteousness. Listen! I know not who it is who speaks, yet the voice with which he condemns mankind proceeds not from the schools of philosophers, but from the midst of the crowd: “Host is not safe from guest; Father-in-law from son; but seldom love Exists ’twixt brothers; wives long to destroy Their husbands; husbands long to slay their wives.”