“There is also an obnoxious group of people, who praise whatever they hear praised, and will censure when they hear another censuring; they deny if another denies, and they affirm when they hear someone else affirming; and, just as the octopus will change its color to look like the soil underneath it, so too do these people change their opinions to match the pleasure of the audience, and they are prepared to testify against justice or even against God himself if they think that it would please the audience.”

Est enim pestiferum genus hominum, qui laudant quaecumque audiunt laudari, et rursus cum vituperante vituperant; negant si quis negat, et affirmant ubi audiunt affirmantem; atque ut polypus ad speciem subiecti soli colorem mutat, ita et isti ad voluptatem audientium sententias variant, parati et adversus iustitiam et adversus Deum testificari, si placitum esse putarint audienti.

-Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, de Liberorum Educatione, chp. 32