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[26] But no such thing can come to pass until you are persuaded that tranquillity is more advantageous and more profitable than meddlesomeness,1 justice than injustice, and attention to one's own affairs than covetousness of the possessions of others.

This is a theme on which none of the orators has ever made bold to address you. I, however, shall devote most of my discourse to this very subject. For I observe that happiness is to be found in these ways of life and not in those which we now follow.

1 Meddlesomeness, πολυπραγμοσύνη, is used here and elsewhere in the speech as the opposite of ἡσυχία ( or σωφροσύνη, moderation, self-control). The latter contains the idea of quiet living and minding one's own business in private relations, and in foreign relations, of pursuing peace and avoiding aggression.

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