Even these people's pleasures are restless and disturbed by constant worries. At their happiest moments, they think: "How long will this last?" This mindset has made kings weep over their own power. They aren't so much delighted by their grand position as they are terrified by the fact that it must end someday. That most arrogant Persian king had an army so vast it stretched across endless plains — too large to count, only to measure. Yet he burst into tears thinking that in less than a hundred years, none of those warriors would still be alive. But it was this same king who wept who would bring about their deaths. He would destroy some by sea, some on land, some in battle, some in flight. In a very short time, he would kill the very men whose hundredth year he worried about so tenderly.
Such men's very pleasures are restless and disturbed by various alarms, and at the most joyous moment of all there rises the anxious thought: "How long will this last?" This frame of mind has led kings to weep over their power, and they have not been so much delighted at the grandeur of their position, as they have been terrified by the end to which it must some day come. That most arrogant Persian king, when his army stretched over vast plains and could not be counted but only measured, burst into tears at the thought that in less than a hundred years none of all those warriors would be alive; yet their death was brought upon them by the very man who wept over it, who was about to destroy some of them by sea, some on land, some in battle, and some in flight, and who would in a very short space of time put an end to those about whose hundredth year he showed such solicitude.