Plutarch (c. 50-120)
“It is true that it is normal for people to recognize true virtue when difficulties have brought them low, but not everyone is strong enough at these times of reversal to emulate what they admire and avoid what they find distasteful; in fact, some are so weak that they give in to their characteristic flaws all the more readily at such times and cannot keep their rationality intact.”
- From the Parallel Lives (Life of Antony, chapter 17) by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield in Roman Lives (Oxford University Press/Oxford World Classics, 1999, 2008).
