Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.
Interpretation
True friends are revealed in times of difficulty and change.
This quote by Cicero suggests that the true nature of friendship is often revealed during challenging circumstances. When faced with changes in fortune or difficult times, it becomes clear who our reliable friends are, as they stand by us and support us through adversity. The statement emphasizes the idea that real friends are those who remain steadfast and dependable regardless of life's ups and downs.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of friendships in difficult times.
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.
If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. but if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation.
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
Friends donβt spy; true friendship is about privacy, too.
Here's a toast to the roast that good fellowship lends, with the sparkle of beer and wine; May its sentiment always be deeper, my friends, than the foam at the top of the stein. Then here's to the heartening wassail, wherever good fellows are found; Be its master instead of its vassal, and order the glasses around.
Everything is connected. Surfing is a solitary sport. But I can tell you that some of the most amazing things I've done surfing have come from being a part of a tribe.
What's most important in a friendship? Tolerance and loyalty.
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