Even the people who say that the highest good is bodily pleasure see how shameful this position is. So they claim that pleasure cannot be separated from virtue. They say no one can live with honor without living cheerfully, and no one can live cheerfully without living with honor. I don't see how these completely different things can possibly be connected. What prevents virtue from existing without pleasure? The answer is that all good things come from virtue. Even the things that these pleasure-seekers love and pursue originally spring from virtue's roots.
Even those very people who declare the highest good to be in the belly, see what a dishonourable position they have assigned to it: and therefore they say that pleasure cannot be parted from virtue, and that no one can either live honourably without living cheerfully, nor yet live cheerfully without living honourably. I do not see how these very different matters can have any connexion with one another. What is there, I pray you, to prevent virtue existing apart from pleasure? of course the reason is that all good things derive their origin from virtue, and therefore even those things which you cherish and seek for come originally from its roots.