Phocion

And yet it is commonly held that a people is more apt to wreak its insolence upon good men when it is prosperous, being then lifted up by grandeur and power; but the reverse is often the case. For calamities make men’s dispositions bitter, irritable, and prone to wrath, so that no one can say anything to please or soften them, but they are annoyed by every speech or word that has vigour. He who censures them for their transgressions is thought to abuse them for their misfortunes, and he who is outspoken with them, to despise them.

And just as honey irritates wounded and ulcerated parts of the body, so often words of truth and soberness sting and exasperate those who are in an evil plight, unless uttered with kindness and complaisance; and therefore, doubtless, the poet calls that which is pleasant menoeikes, on the ground that it yields to that part of the soul which experiences pleasure, and does not fight with it or resist it.[*](As often, Plutarch’s etymology is amiably wrong. Homer uses μενοεικές as a stock epithet of good things in such abundance as to be spirit-suiting, or satisfying.)