[75] Once to have been valiant is not enough; no man can keep his valour unless he watch over it to the end.

As the arts decay through neglect, as the body, once healthy and alert, will grow weak through sloth and indolence, even so the powers of the spirit, temperance, self-control, and courage, if we grow slack in training, fall back once more to rottenness and death.
[76] We must watch ourselves; we must not surrender to the sweetness of the day.

It is a great work, methinks, to found an empire, but a far greater to keep it safe.

To seize it may be the fruit of daring and daring only, but to hold it is impossible without self-restraint and self-command and endless care.

[77] We must not forget this; we must train ourselves in virtue from now henceforward with even greater diligence than before we won this glory, remembering that the more a man possesses, the more there are to envy him, to plot against him, and be his enemies, above all when the wealth he wins and the services he receives are yielded by reluctant hands.