Impossible is it that a guileful citizen utter potent words among the
good, nevertheless he fawneth on all and useth every subtlety. No part
have I in that bold boast of his, 'Let me be a friend to my friend,
but toward an enemy I will be an enemy and as a wolf will cross his
path, treading now here now there in crooked ways[11].' For every form
of polity is a man of direct speech best, whether under a despotism,
or whether the wild multitude, or the wisest, have the state in their
keeping.

Against God it is not meet to strive, who now upholdeth these, and
now again to those giveth great glory. But not even this cheereth the
heart of the envious; for they measure by an unjust balance, and their
own hearts they afflict with bitter pain, till such time as they
attain to that which their hearts devise.

To take the car's yoke on one's neck and run on lightly, this helpeth;
but to kick against the goad is to make the course perilous. Be it
mine to dwell among the good, and to win their love.


[Footnote 1: Pindar here identifies himself with his ode, which he
sent, not took, to Syracuse. Compare Ol. vii. 13, &c.]

[Footnote 2: Properly [Greek: harmata] would seem to include all
except the body of the chariot ([Greek: diphros]) in which the
charioteer stood.]

[Footnote 3: His father-in-law Deioneus.]

[Footnote 4: I. e. to estimate rightly one's capacities,