If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
Julius CaesarRead
After divorce of Pompeia in 62 BC I feel that members of my family should never be suspected of breaking the law. -Meos tam suspicione quam crimine iudico carere oportere
Interpretation
Julius Caesar emphasizes the importance of family reputation and integrity over legal accusations.
In this quote, Julius Caesar reflects on the aftermath of his divorce from Pompeia, illustrating the significance he places on the honor and standing of his family. He advocates for the idea that family members should remain above suspicion of wrongdoing, conveying a broader message about the moral responsibility of individuals and maintaining a clean reputation in the eyes of society.
In practice
During a family gathering, one might invoke this quote to discuss the importance of upholding family values.
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished.
I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.
As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can.
All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.
No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
Hospitality is gold in this City; you have to be clever to figure out how to be welcoming and defensive at the same time. When to love something and when to quit. If you don't know how, you can end up out of control or controlled by some outside thing like that hard case last winter.
A child hasn't a grown-up person's appetite for affection. A little of it goes a long way with them; and they like a good imitation of it better than the real thing, as every nurse knows.
In love, for example - the so-called love - we are 'related.' We appear to be related. We create the fallacy of a relationship, but in fact we are just deceiving ourselves. The two will remain two. Howsoever near, the two will remain two. Even in sexual communion they will be two. This two-ness, this duality will never last. So a relationship is only creating a fallacious oneness. It is not there. Oneness can never exist between two selves. Oneness can only exist between two no-selves.
If we can exit a relationship, pressure to reconcile lessens; if we must live with those who have wronged us, we are pushed to reconcile.
I have now been married to my third husband for more than 20 years. But when you've had children with someone you're divorced from, divorce defines everything; it's the lurking fact, a slice of anger in the pie of your brain.
I won't quit to become someone's old lady.
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