How to Be a Friend: An Ancient Guide to True Friendship (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

by Marcus Tullius Cicero

They say that you, however, are wise in a rather different way, not only in your natural abilities and character, but in your knowledge and desire to learn.

can say this of julian

Anxiety for the sake of a friend is something we should accept and certainly isn’t grounds for removing friendship from our life, any more than we should reject living a virtuous life because it sometimes causes us care and distress.

But the third view—that someone should be valued by his friends just as much as he values himself—is the worst of all. For often the spirit of friends is broken, and they have little faith that their fortunes will improve. In these cases it’s not the mark of a friend to have the same judgment of another as he does of himself, but rather to work mightily to raise his spirits and lead him to better hopes and plans.

It’s right, however, first of all to be a good person yourself, and then to seek someone similar to you.

this is precisely why i quit vc this year - why i want to work as fucking hard as i can so that i can earn the respect of the people that i want to partner with