On Old Age, On Friendship, On Divination

CICERO

4 II. SCIPIO. I am often accustomed to wonder, along with this Gaius Laelius, at your excellent and perfect wisdom in other matters, Marcus Cato, but most especially because I have never perceived old age to be a burden to you, which to most old men is so hateful that they say they carry a weight heavier than Mount Aetna volcanic mountain in Sicily.

CATO. You seem to wonder at a matter that is not at all difficult, Scipio and Laelius. For to those who have no resources within themselves to live well and happily, every age is burdensome; but to those who seek all good things from themselves, nothing can seem evil which the necessity of nature brings. Old age is foremost in this category. Everyone prays to attain it, yet they complain once they have attained it; such is the inconsistency and perversity of folly. They say it creeps upon them sooner than they had thought. First, who forced them to think falsely? For does old age creep upon adolescence any sooner than adolescence creeps upon childhood? Furthermore, would old age be any less burdensome to them if they were in their eight-hundredth year than if they were in their eightieth? For a past life, however long, once it has flowed away, could soothe a foolish old age with no consolation.

5 Therefore, if you are accustomed to admire my wisdom—which I wish were worthy of your opinion and my cognomen surname/epithet—we are wise in this: that we follow nature, the best guide, as if she were a god, and we obey her. It is not likely that she, having organized all the other parts of life well, would leave the final act [undone].

Cato was called sapiens (wise), as noted in Cicero, Laelius 2. 6.