Moderation has been declared a virtue so as to curb the ambition of the great and console lesser folk for their lack of fortune and merit.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #308 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]