[8]
“I have; and I do not for a moment put myself in the category of those who want to be rulers.1 For considering how hard a matter it is to provide for one's own needs, I think it absurd not to be content to do that, but to shoulder the burden of supplying the wants of the community as well. That anyone should sacrifice a large part of his own wishes and make himself accountable as head of the state for the least failure to carry out all the wishes of the community is surely the height of folly.
1 Cyropaedia I. vi. 7; vii. ii, 26 f.
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