Laudator Temporis Acti

Sallust, The War Against Jugurtha 85.31-33 (Marius speaking; tr. J. Wight Duff):

My words have no studied elegance. That I value slightly. Merit can display itself unaided. My detractors require artificiality to screen low deeds behind rhetoric. I never studied Greek literature. I had no wish to—it had been of no use to its teachers in the direction of virtue. My skill lies in what is far the most serviceable for my country—to smite a foe, to keep good watch, to fear nothing save discredit, to endure winter and summer alike, to sleep on the ground, to undergo hunger and fatigue together.

non sunt composita verba mea: parvi id facio. ipsa se virtus satis ostendit: illis artificio opus est, ut turpia facta oratione tegant. neque litteras Graecas didici: parum placebat eas discere, quippe quae ad virtutem doctoribus nihil profuerant. at illa multo optuma rei publicae doctus sum: hostem ferire, praesidia agitare, nihil metuere nisi turpem famam, hiemem et aestatem iuxta pati, humi requiescere, eodem tempore inopiam et laborem tolerare.