offensive if they said nothing. One ought to proportion one's
thanks to the importance of the benefit received, and to use the
phrases, "You have laid more of us than you think under an
obligation," for everyone likes to find his good actions extend
further than he expected. "You do not know what it is that you have
done for me; but you ought to know how much more important it is
than you imagine." It is in itself an expression of gratitude to
speak of one's self as overwhelmed by kindness; or "I shall never
be able to thank you sufficiently; but, at any rate, I will never
cease to express everywhere my inability to thank you."

XXV. By nothing did Furnius gain greater credit with Augustus, and
make it easy for him to obtain anything else for which he might
ask, than by merely saying, when at his request Augustus pardoned
his father for having taken Antonius's side, "One wrong alone I
have received at your hands, Caesar; you have forced me to live and
to die owing you a greater debt of gratitude than I can ever
repay." What can prove gratitude so well as that a man should never
be satisfied, should never even entertain the hope of making any
adequate return for what he has received? By these and similar
expressions we must try not to conceal our gratitude, but to
display it as clearly as possible. No words need be used; if we
only feel as we ought, our thankfulness will be shown in our
countenances. He who intends to be grateful, let him think how he
shall repay a kindness while he is receiving it. Chrysippus says
that such a man must watch for his opportunity, and spring forward
whenever it offers, like one who has been entered for a race, and
who stands at the starting-point waiting for the barriers to be
thrown open; and even then he must use great exertions and great
swiftness to catch the other, who has a start of him.