Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Familiarity can lead to complacency and a lack of inquiry into the nature of things.
Cicero's quote highlights how repeated exposure to certain sights or experiences can dull our sense of curiosity and wonder. When we become accustomed to something, we often stop questioning its existence or understanding its significance, which reinforces a passive acceptance of our surroundings rather than an active engagement with the world.
Themes
MindHabitCuriosityFamiliarityInquiry
In practice
Example use cases
A teacher might use this quote to encourage students to question the information they take for granted.
More from Marcus Tullius Cicero
All quotes βThose 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
He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.
Francis BaconRead
And because, in all the Galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed, and sometimes they reaped. And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.
Arthur C. ClarkeRead
Still she haunts me, phantomwise, Alice moving under skies Never seen by waking eyes.
Lewis CarrollRead
Man is a creative animal, doomed to strive toward a goal, engaged in full-time engineering.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life, liberty and property.
Susan B. AnthonyRead
Philosophers have argued for centuries about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but materialists have known all along that it depends on whether they are jitterbugging or dancing cheek to cheek.
Tom RobbinsRead