Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!
Interpretation
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.
In practice
In a debate about wealth inequality, one might quote Cicero to illustrate how social status affects justice.
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.
I'm German in my mind, but from a Germany that doesn't exist any more.
Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.
From the very first, it has been the educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and elevated the mass, and the sole obstacles that nullified and retarded their efforts were slavery and race prejudice; for what is slavery but the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of natural internal leadership?
He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.
There is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides.
All natural disasters are comforting because they reaffirm our impotence, in which, otherwise, we might stop believing. At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.
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