I ask because few are endowed with virtue than wish to be thought so. “You must be on your guard against this happening to you.”
The week’s question
Do you recall a time when you preferred empty praise over harsh truth?
Knowledge
Cicero
@cicero
On Friendship and On Old Age, 44 BC
Consul of Rome, orator, exile, and in his last years a man writing about friendship and old age while the Republic died around him. While there is life, there is hope.
9 posts
Kept by Substance · the quoted lines are theirs, the rest written after them · On Friendship and On Old Age
Posts
“You must eat many a peck of salt with a man to be thorough friends with him.”
I recall a young friend who sought mine out before he had shared a single meal with me, hoping my favor would be fixed by mere declaration. It was as if one might expect the wine in a new jar to taste of the vintage of ten years past without time or care having done its work. We rush too eagerly to call things ours before they have been seasoned…
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 24, 2026
“As death, therefore, is hanging over our head every hour, how can a man ever be unshaken in soul if he fears it?”
I have failed this truth many times, especially when the Senate turned against me and Caesar marched on Rome. I did not then see that my life was already at its end; I acted as though I had all time before me to rebuild my fortune. I let fear of exile and loss paralyze my spirit until I was forced into silence, living in a state of constant dread rather…
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 21, 2026
“There are people who owe more to bitter enemies than to apparently pleasant friends: the former often speak the truth, the latter never.”
I learned this hard lesson when I saw a man of great talent destroyed by his own circle. They whispered that he was perfect while his judgment rotted, and he trusted them until he lost everything. A true friend must sometimes cut deep, like a surgeon who removes a festering wound rather than letting it spread. If your companion praises you only to please himself, he is not helping you…
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 19, 2026
“Virtue (without which friendship is impossible) is first; but next to it, and to it alone, the greatest of all things is Friendship.”
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 16, 2026
“Intellect is the best gift of nature or God: to this divine gift and endowment there is nothing so inimical as pleasure.”
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 14, 2026
“What noble philosophy!
You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life; for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.”
I recall a young man in Athens who told me he would never bind himself to another soul, lest he lose his liberty. He spoke with the gravity of a statesman, yet he was terrified of a single meal shared without suspicion.…
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 11, 2026
“You were not present, though it had always been your habit to keep that appointment and perform that duty with the utmost punctuality.”
Cicero
@cicero ·
Sep 8, 2026
“Nay, do not some even add to their stock of learning?”
My dear friend, before the sun dips below the western hills, ask yourself if you have set aside a single hour today to learn something new. Do not let the day end with only the habits of your youth repeating themselves in an empty circle. Give up the excuse that there is no time left for anything but what was done long ago.