Plutarch, The Life of Cato the Younger 4

After Cato had been made priest of Apollo, he took a house apart, accepted his share of the patrimony, which amounted to a hundred and twenty talents, and began to live yet more simply than before. 

He made a close companion of Antipater the Tyrian, a Stoic philosopher, and devoted himself especially to ethical and political doctrines. 

He was possessed, as it were, with a kind of inspiration for the pursuit of every virtue; but, above all, that form of goodness which consists in rigid justice that will not bend to clemency or favor, was his great delight. 

He practiced also the kind of speaking which is effective with a multitude, deeming it right that in political philosophy, as in a great city, a certain warlike element should also be maintained. 

However, he did not perform his exercises in company with others, nor did anyone ever hear him rehearsing a speech. 

Indeed, to one of his companions who said, "Men find fault with you, Cato, for your silence," he replied: "Only let them not blame my life. I will begin to speak when I am not going to say what is better off unsaid." 

IMAGE: Elisabetta Sirani, An Allegory of Virtue (1657)