Ingratitude

Nor is it any wonder that, among our many and our greatest vices, none is more common than ingratitude.

then they arrive at the point at which, as I think, every worst and most ungrateful man arrives, namely, forgetfulness.

1 That you may know that the disposition of a grateful mind is to be sought for its own sake, to be ungrateful is a thing to be shunned for its own sake, since nothing so much sunders and tears apart the concord of the human race as this vice.

but to forget the best men and to rob virtue of its prizes can meet with no decent pretext, but must of necessity belong to ingratitude, envy, meanness, all the most shameful things.

Therefore he who courts the present man, but neglects the earlier friend, and has forgotten the benefit already rendered, while making most account of the help he hopes for — do you not know what name he meets with?

The ungrateful man torments and frets himself;

He is ungrateful who returns a benefit without interest.

Let us, therefore, shun being ungrateful, not for another's sake, but for our own.

but for an ingrate there is no expiation.

"This verse was sung by Brahmā himself, revered by all the worlds — uttered in wrath upon beholding an ingrate.

"He who, his purpose having been served, does not requite his friends — that ingrate deserves to be slain by all beings, O lord of the leaping ones.

And they bring one another to trial also charged with an offence for which people hate one another most but go to law least, namely, that of ingratitude;