Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
Interpretation
Cicero values peace, even if it is imperfect, over the righteousness often claimed in war.
This quote by Cicero conveys his deep belief in the importance of peace, even when it may seem flawed or unjust. He suggests that the costs and ramifications of war dramatically outweigh the justifications for it, proposing that maintaining peace, regardless of its fairness, is preferable to engaging in a conflict that may be seen as morally right yet results in unnecessary suffering and destruction.
In practice
During a debate on military intervention, one might quote Cicero to emphasize the value of peace over conflict.
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.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
I am not a pretty girl. I don't want to be a pretty girl. No, I want to be more than a pretty girl.
The highest spiritual quality, the noblest property of mind a man can have, is this of loyalty ... a man with no loyalty in him, with no sense of love or reverence or devotion due to something outside and above his poor daily life, with its pains and pleasures, profits and losses, is as evil a case as man can be.
Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parley.
I am convinced that one should tell one's spiritual director if one has a great desire for Communion, for Our Lord does not come from Heaven every day to stay in a golden ciborium; He comes to find another heaven, the heaven of our soul in which He loves to dwell.
Take care of brothers and sisters who are weaker ... the elderly, the sick, the hungry, the homeless and strangers, because we will be judged on this.
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