If someone else pays a penny and gets lettuce, while you don't pay and go without it, don't think he got the better deal. He has the lettuce, but you still have your penny. Same thing here. You didn't get invited to that person's dinner party because you didn't pay the price. The price of dinner invitations is flattery and kissing up. So pay up if it's worth it to you. But if you want to keep your dignity and still get the dinner, you're being unreasonable and stupid. Don't you get anything instead of the dinner? Of course you do. You don't have to praise someone you don't respect. You don't have to put up with his servants treating you badly.
If another, then, paying an obulus, takes the lettuces, and you, not paying it, go without them, do not imagine that he has gained any advantage over you. For as he has the lettuces, so you have the obulus which you did not give. So, in the present case, you have not been invited to such a person’s entertainment because you have not paid him the price for which a supper is sold. It is sold for praise; it is sold for attendance. Give him, then, the value if it be for your advantage. But if you would at the same time not pay the one, and yet receive the other, you are unreasonable and foolish. Have you nothing, then, in place of the supper? Yes, indeed, you have—not to praise him whom you do not like to praise; not to bear the insolence of his lackeys.