The Rich

The rich man, the man who has time and money at command, he surely, if any, is the man to consume it litigiously and frivolously.

The rich, were it from them that this great safeguard were withholden, have shields of their own to ward off the attacks of injury:

In pecuniary cases, the smaller the sum in dispute, the less reserve is used in branding the conduct of the parties with the charge of litigation, of which, in such cases the reproach is apt to fall principally, if not exclusively, to the plaintiff's share.

Sail to this fair, if thou art wise, O rich man;

Wherefore thou, the proud and powerful and rich, must by all means set over thyself some man of God as a trainer and helmsman.

Let it teach the well-to-do that they must neither neglect their own salvation as though already condemned beforehand, nor again sink wealth in the deep, nor condemn it as a plotter and enemy against life, but learn in what manner and how wealth is to be used and life acquired.

So since we say that poverty is neither worse nor more unfortunate than wealth, but perhaps even more advantageous to the many, neither must this reproach be weighed as heavier than that.

doing all such things eagerly and laboriously, men would never be in want of work and livelihood, nor would they make true the appellation by which the wealthy are wont to call them, naming them resourceless, but on the contrary would be more providers than those, and lacking nothing, so to speak, of the necessary and useful things.

and if in battle we should all be willing to die for our democratic form of government and yet, in our votes as judges, especially favor men of property.

in consequence, whenever you punish thieves and cheats you benefit only the rich, but whenever you chastise those who commit mayhem, you give aid to yourselves.

For it is unjust that you should reckon the indemnification to be given to plaintiffs who are obscure as of less importance than that which men of distinction are to receive, and that the poor be thought inferior to the rich.

So they are hard to talk to since they are unwilling to commend anything except wealth.

And I was filled with admiration for the man by these words, and desirous of hearing more I tried to draw him out and said, I fancy, Cephalus, that most people, when they hear you talk in this way, are not convinced but think that you bear old age lightly not because of your character but because of your wealth.

And so if a malediction against the rich is to be reckoned to the Creator, the benediction of the same upon the beggars will be defended, and the whole work is now the Christ of the Creator's.