Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that excess can diminish the enjoyment of life's greatest pleasures.
Cicero's quote highlights the idea that while the greatest pleasures in life bring joy and fulfillment, overindulgence or excessive satisfaction in those pleasures can lead to a sense of emptiness or dissatisfaction. It serves as a reminder to find balance and moderation in our pursuits of happiness, as too much of a good thing can often result in the opposite effect.
In practice
In a discussion about indulgence, one might say, 'As Cicero noted, in everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.'
Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defence can actually be just.
Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.
Nothing contributes to the entertainment of the reader more, than the change of times and the vicissitudes of fortune.
No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.
Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.
There is a deeper pleasure in following truth to the scaffold or the cross, than in joining the multitudinous retinue, and mingling our shouts with theirs, when victorious error celebrates its triumphs.
Where all pretend to be thinking alike, it's likely that no one is thinking at all.
Pity sidesteps complexity in favor of narratives that we're comfortable with, reducing the nuances of a person's experience to a sound bite.
No wonder, he thought, that the panhandle people were a godly lot, for they lived in sudden, violent atmospheres. Weather kept them humble.
I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.
You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.
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