Those who commit private theft pass their lives in confinement and fetters; plunderers of the public, in gold and purple.

Latin: Fures priuatorum furtorum in neruo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt, fures publici in auro atque in purpura. | Attributed to Cato by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae 11:18. | Gellius was referring to a speech by Cato "On Dividing Spoils among the Soldiers". Gold and purple possibly alludes to the toga picta worn by the victorious general at a Roman triumph.