Book 1
9.36
Accordingly, when we know what we ought to do and the qualities we ought to possess, we ought to make a change in the phrase and turn it, employing this knowledge as a suggestion. For instance, the statement that one ought not to pride oneself on goods which are due to fortune, but on those which are due to oneself alone, when expressed in this way, has the force of a suggestion; but expressed thus, he was proud, not of goods which were due to fortune, but of those which were due to himself alone, it becomes praise. Accordingly, if you desire to praise, look what you would suggest; if you desire to suggest, look what you would praise.
9.37
The form of the expression will necessarily be opposite, when the prohibitive has been changed into the non-prohibitive.In the first sentence, the statement is imperative, there is a prohibition; in the second, it is a simple affirmative, implying praise. In the one case there is forbidding, in the other not-forbidding, which are opposites.
