Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.
Interpretation
Regaining freedom after oppression is more impactful than never experiencing danger to freedom.
This quote by Cicero emphasizes that when freedom is taken away and then restored, it is appreciated more deeply than freedom that has never been threatened. The 'keener fangs' metaphor suggests that the pain of loss enhances the joy and value of regained freedom, highlighting the importance of experiencing and valuing liberty.
In practice
In a speech advocating for human rights, one could use this quote to emphasize the value of freedom after oppression.
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.
Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.
Compared with that of Taoists and Far Eastern Buddhists, the Christian attitude toward Nature has been curiously insensitive and often downright domineering and violent. Taking their cue from an unfortunate remark in Genesis, Catholic moralists have regarded animals as mere things which men do right to regard for their own ends. . . .
The first and most important thing a man should keep away from is not doing harm of any kind knowingly to anyone, at any time.
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.
Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.
I write for one and only one purpose, to overcome the invincible ignorance of the traduced heart. I wish to speak to and for those who have had enough of the Social Lie, the Economics of Mass Murder, the Sexual Hoax, and the Domestication of Conspicuous Consumption.
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