Plain speaking is a cause of trouble, if the result of it is resentment, which is poison of friendship; but compliance is really the cause of much more trouble, because by indulging his faults it lets a friend plunge into headlong ruin.
Analyzing the complexities of honesty in relationships, Cicero contrasts the immediate discomfort of frankness with the greater long-term harm of unquestioning agreement.
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There are, on the other hand, two kinds of injustice--the one, on the part of those who inflict wrong, the other on the part of those who, when they can, do not shield from wrong those upon whom it is being inflicted.
What a sorry state of servitude for a virtue--to be pandering to sensual pleasure!
But those wars which have glory for their end must be carried on with less bitterness.
And it is a great man's duty in troublous times to single out the guilty for punishment, to spare the many, and in every turn of fortune to hold to a true and honourable course.
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