Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, On the Answers of the Haruspices 9.18 (tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey):

Perhaps I may seem to some a closer student of books than other people who have as much to do as I have; but that is not to say that I am apt to take pleasure in writings that deter and detach our minds from religion, or even to read them at all. Our forebears tell me to practice our religion and teach me how. I have so high an opinion of their wisdom that I consider any who, I won't say attain to it, but who appreciate it at its proper worth to be wise enough, and more than enough.

neque is sum qui, si cui forte videor plus quam ceteri qui aeque atque ego sunt occupati versari in studio litterarum, his delecter aut utar omnino litteris quae nostros animos deterrent atque avocant a religione. ego vero primum habeo auctores ac magistros religionum colendarum maiores nostros, quorum mihi tanta fuisse sapientia videtur ut satis superque prudentes sint qui illorum prudentiam non dicam adsequi, sed quanta fuerit perspicere possint.