QuoteProject
Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!
Marcus Tullius Cicero
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Wealth can sometimes overshadow one's faults, leading to a perception of innocence despite wrongdoing.

This quote reflects the idea that societal judgment often favors those who possess wealth and power. Cicero suggests that a person's fortune can lead others to overlook their immoral or condemnable actions, highlighting a disparity in how justice is perceived based on one's status in life.

Themes

WealthJusticePerceptionMoralitySociety

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about wealth inequality, one might quote Cicero to illustrate how social status affects justice.

More from Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defence can actually be just.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Nothing contributes to the entertainment of the reader more, than the change of times and the vicissitudes of fortune.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
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.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead

Similar quotes

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.
W. H. AudenRead
Whatever is, is in its causes just.
John DrydenRead
I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
Michel De MontaigneRead
A lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing.
William ShakespeareRead
Gourmandise is an impassioned, rational, and habitual preference for all objects which flatter the sense of taste.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-SavarinRead
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
Flannery O'ConnorRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.