Friend is a usual word, but rare is a faithful friend.
Socrates (whose death I would not flee, so long as I attained a glory like
his, and would accept malevolence, to be absolved when I am dust),
Socrates was building himself a little house, when a commoner, I know not who, as it usually happens, asked him: "But excuse me, why, great as you are, do you build yourself such a small house?". And he said, "If only I could fill it with true friends!"
[Vulgare amici nomen, sed rara est fides.
Cum parvas aedes sibi fundasset Socrates,
(Cuius non fugio mortem, si famam assequar,
Et cedo invidiae, dummodo absolvar cinis),
Ex populo sic nescio quis, ut fieri solet:
«Quaeso, tam angustam talis vir ponis domum?»
«Utinam» inquit «veris hanc amicis inpleam!»]
Socrates (whose death I would not flee, so long as I attained a glory like
his, and would accept malevolence, to be absolved when I am dust),
Socrates was building himself a little house, when a commoner, I know not who, as it usually happens, asked him: "But excuse me, why, great as you are, do you build yourself such a small house?". And he said, "If only I could fill it with true friends!"
[Vulgare amici nomen, sed rara est fides.
Cum parvas aedes sibi fundasset Socrates,
(Cuius non fugio mortem, si famam assequar,
Et cedo invidiae, dummodo absolvar cinis),
Ex populo sic nescio quis, ut fieri solet:
«Quaeso, tam angustam talis vir ponis domum?»
«Utinam» inquit «veris hanc amicis inpleam!»]
