Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
Interpretation
Education and study elevate individuals more than inherent nature or characteristics.
Cicero's quote emphasizes the transformative power of study and knowledge, suggesting that learning and intellectual pursuits can raise a person's status and character more effectively than one's natural abilities or traits. It highlights the importance of education in personal development and the shaping of one's identity.
In practice
During a graduation speech emphasizing the value of continuous learning.
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 considerable evidence that women's education and literacy tend to reduce the mortality rates of children
Teaching sometimes seems like not one profession, but every profession. We ask them to be doctor and diplomat, calf-herder, map-maker, wizard and watchman, electricians of the mind.
History must share with reading, writing and arithmetic first rank as the most important subjects in the curriculum. Understanding the issues on which citizens of a republic are expected to vote is impossible without an understanding of the past.
But with the library, it's like catnip, I suppose: you begin to run in circles because there's so much to look at and read.
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
Pleasant is a rainy winter's day, within doors! The best study for such a day, or the best amusement,βcall it which you will,βis a book of travels, describing scenes the most unlike that sombre one
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