人们更倾向于批评而不是称赞那些领导者们。

领导者理应为人群中的佼佼者、出色的代表和具备无可挑剔的品质的那一个。

“渴求提高人民的福祉，而非自己的声誉” — 这应该是所有领导者们都应该效仿的。

People are far more willing to criticize leaders than to praise them. For better or worse, leaders are prominent people – they live their lives on a kind of stage. This makes it easy to spot their faults.

Of course, politicians should be scrutinized. We should look long and hard at their political strategies, policy decisions, and public actions. But the scrutiny doesn’t stop there. The marriages, friendships, and even sex lives of leading citizens are all fair game.

Unlike other, self-aggrandizing politicians, Cato was motivated by the welfare of Rome – not by the desire to improve his own reputation. That’s an attitude that all leaders should emulate.

Anyone who wants to lead needs to anticipate criticism, and avoid it. This isn’t an easy task. In fact, the only sure-fire way of doing that is to live spotlessly, putting yourself beyond the risk of scandal and condemnation.

That’s the route that Pericles chose. This great Athenian statesman was always self-consciously dignified: he spoke calmly, walked slowly, and kept one hand tucked neatly inside his toga at all times.

What’s more, everything he did showed dedication, not just decorum. The only road he was seen to walk was the one leading to the speaker’s platform and the Athenian council chamber. People knew that Pericles could be relied on.

But not every Athenian leader followed his example. Alcibiades, one of the foremost politicians of the following generation, couldn’t have been less like his upright, respectable predecessor. Though brilliant, Alcibiades quickly gained a reputation for extravagance, recklessness, and indecency.

His actions even resulted in his being forced out of Athens – not once, but twice. Though his native polis sorely needed his leadership, the Athenians were unwilling to tolerate the glaring flaws in his character. In the end, Alcibiades, despite his natural talents, died in exile.