[3,100] καὶ μὴν τά γε ὠφέλιμα φάρμακα τοῖς μὲν νοσοῦσιν ὠφέλιμα, τοῖς δὲ ὑγιαίνουσι περιττά. φιλίας δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἀεὶ σφόδρα δεῖ καὶ τοῖς νοσοῦσιν· ἣ συμφυλάττει μὲν πλοῦτον, ἐπαρκεῖ δὲ πενίᾳ, λαμπρύνει (101) μὲν δόξαν, ἀμαυροῖ δὲ ἀδοξίαν. μόνον δὲ τοῦτο τὰ μὲν δυσχερῆ πάντα μειοῖ, τὰ δὲ ἀγαθὰ πάντα αὔξει. ποία μὲν γὰρ συμφορὰ δίχα φιλίας οὐκ ἀφόρητος, ποία δὲ εὐτυχία χωρὶς φίλων οὐκ ἄχαρις; {εἰ δὲ σκυθρωπὸν ἐρημία καὶ πάντων φοβερώτατον, οὐ τὴν ἀνθρώπων ἐρημίαν χρὴ τοιοῦτον νομίζειν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τῶν φίλων· (102) ἐπεὶ τῶν γε μὴ εὐνοούντων πολλάκις ἡ ἐρημία κρείττων.} ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὐδ´ εὐτυχίαν ἐκείνην νενόμικα, ἣ μηδένα ἔχει τὸν συνηδόμενον. ῥᾷον γὰρ ἄν τις συμφορὰν τὴν χαλεπωτάτην φέροι μετὰ φίλων ἢ μόνος εὐτυχίαν τὴν μεγίστην. ὡς ἐκεῖνον ἀθλιώτατον ἐγὼ κρίνω δικαίως ὃς ἐν μὲν ταῖς συμφοραῖς πλείστους ἔχει τοὺς ἐφηδομένους, (103) ἐν δὲ ταῖς εὐτυχίαις οὐδένα τὸν συνηδόμενον. {ᾧ γὰρ πλεῖστοι μὲν καὶ ἄριστοι φίλοι, δυσμενὴς δὲ φαυλότατος, εἴτις ἄρα ἐστί, καὶ πολλοὶ μὲν οἱ ἀγαπῶντες, πλείους δὲ οἱ ἐπαινοῦντες, ψέγειν δὲ οὐδεὶς δυνάμενος, πῶς ὁ τοιοῦτος οὐ τελέως εὐδαίμων; ὁ γὰρ τοιοῦτος ἀνὴρ πολλοὺς μὲν ἔχει τοὺς συνηδομένους, οὐδένα δὲ ἐφηδόμενον καὶ διὰ τὸ εὐτυχεῖν ἐφ´ ἅπασι καὶ διὰ τὸ πολλοὺς (104) μὲν ἔχειν φίλους, μηδένα δὲ ἐχθρόν.} εἰ δὲ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ ὦτα καὶ γλῶττα καὶ χεῖρες ἀνθρώπῳ τοῦ παντὸς ἄξια οὐ μόνον πρὸς τὸ ἥδεσθαι ζῶντα, ἀλλὰ δύνασθαι ζῆν, τούτων οὐκ ἔλαττον, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον φίλοι χρήσιμοι.

[3,100] Again, salutary drugs are salutary to the sick, but of no use to the well. Of friendship, however, men stand ever in the greatest need, whether in health or in sickness : it helps to defend wealth and relieves poverty; it adds lustre to filme and dims the glace of infamy. It is this alone that makes everything unpleasant seem less so and magnifies everything good. For what misfortune is not intolerable without friendship, and what gift of fortune does not lose its charm if friends be lacking ? And although solitude is cheerless and of all things the most terrible, it is not the absence of men that we should consider as solitude, but the absence of friends; for often complete solitude is preferable to the presence of persons not well-disposed. For my part, I have never regarded even good fortune to be such if attended by no friend to rejoice with me, since the severest strokes of misfortune can more easily be borne with friends than the greatest good fortune without them. For with good right I judge that man most wretched who in misfortune has the largest number to gloat over him but in good fortune no one to rejoice with him. When a man has hosts of excellent friends and his foes very few in number—if he has any foe at all—when he has many who love him, still more who admire him, and no one who can censure him, is he not perfectly happy ? For such a man has multitudes to share his joy but not one to gloat over him in misfortune, and for this reason he is fortunate in all things, in that he has hosts of friends but not a single enemy. (104) If eyes, ears, tongue, and hands are worth everything to a man that he may be able merely to live, to say nothing of enjoying life, then friends are not less but more useful than these members.