This man wanted to steal my inheritance. That one accused me in front of people I had been trying to impress for years. Another one wanted my lover. When we want the same things, it should bring us together as friends. Instead, it makes us enemies. A narrow path causes fights between people walking on it. But a wide road can handle whole tribes without anyone bumping into each other. The things you desire cause fights because they are small. You can't give them to one person without taking them away from someone else.
This man wanted to rob me of my inheritance, that one has brought a charge against me before persons[14] whom I had long courted with great expectations, that one has coveted my mistress. A wish for the same things, which ought to have been a bond of friendship, becomes a source of quarrels and hatred. A narrow path causes quarrels among those who pass up and down it; a wide and broadly spread road may be used by whole tribes without jostling. Those objects of desire of yours cause strife and disputes among those who covet the same things, because they are petty, and cannot be given to one man without being taken away from another.