Texte grec :
| [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.
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Traduction française :
| [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 numberif
he has any foe at allwhen 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.
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