However, a man should withdraw from public life only in a way that still lets him help both individuals and humanity as a whole. He can use his mind, his words, and his guidance to do this. The person who serves the state isn't just someone who puts forward candidates for office, defends people in court, and votes on war and peace. He's also someone who encourages young people to do right. He fills the shortage of good teachers by planting virtue in their minds. He stops those who are wildly chasing money and luxury — or at least slows them down. Even from private life, this kind of person serves the public good.
Let a man, however, withdraw himself only in such a fashion that wherever he spends his leisure his wish may still be to benefit individual men and mankind alike, both with his intellect, his voice, and his advice. The man that does good service to the state is not only he who brings forward candidates for public office, defends accused persons, and gives his vote on questions of peace and war, but he who encourages young men in well-doing, who supplies the present dearth of good teachers by instilling into their minds the principles of virtue, who seizes and holds back those who are rushing wildly in pursuit of riches and luxury, and, if he does nothing else, at least checks their course—such a man does service to the public though in a private station.