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"the souls of men are divine, and that when they have quitted the body a return to heaven is open to them, least difficult to those who have been most virtuous and just."
Roman philosophical thought at the time of Cicero
All I can do is to urge on you to regard friendship as the greatest thing in the world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity.
On friendship
We mean then by the "good" those whose actions and lives leave no question as to their honour, purity, equity, and liberality; who are free from greed, lust, and violence; and who have the courage of their convictions.
What is a good person?
Friendship excels relationship in this, that whereas you may eliminate affection from relationship, you cannot do so from friendship. Without it relationship still exists in name, friendship does not.
we look on friendship as worth trying for, not because we are attracted to it by the expectation of ulterior gain, but in the conviction that what it has to give us is from first to last included in the feeling itself.
"the clear indication of virtue, to which a mind of like character is naturally attracted, is the beginning of friendship."
It is not friendship, then, that follows material advantage, but material advantage friendship.
the hour of need shews the friend indeed,"—yet
what is the quality to look out for as a warrant for the stability and permanence of friendship?
loyalty.
simplicity, a social disposition, and a symp...
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And as to the political offices for which some have a burning desire—how many entertain such a contempt for them as to think nothing in the world more empty and trivial!
And it follows that the man to open his ears widest to flatterers is he who first flatters himself and is fondest of himself.
It is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship.
For old men who are reasonable and neither cross-grained nor churlish find old age tolerable enough: whereas unreason and churlishness cause uneasiness at every time of life.
You may be sure, my dear Scipio and Laelius, that the arms best adapted to old age are culture and the active exercise of the virtues.
but also because the consciousness of a well-spent life and the recollection of many virtuous actions are exceedingly delightful.
Like some brave steed that oft before The Olympic wreath of victory bore, Now by the weight of years oppressed, Forgets the race, and takes his rest—
For what is more charming than old age surrounded by the enthusiasm of youth? Shall
The course of life is fixed, and nature admits of its being run but in one way, and only once; and to each part of our life there is something specially seasonable; so that the feebleness of children, as well as the high spirit of youth, the soberness of maturer years, and the ripe wisdom of old age—all have a certain natural advantage which should be secured in its proper season.
For the crowning grace of old age is influence.
For what can be more foolish than to regard the uncertain as certain, the false as true?
