Yesterday, we might have been a bit unfair to our friend M. Tully Cicero
At least one person objected to the question:
To be fair, one respondent had some antipathy for the consul-extraordinaire:
To make some amends, here are some of our Cicero quotes:
Epist. ad Fam. 6.6.6
“I would prefer the most unfair peace to the justest war”
iniquissimam pacem iustissimo bello anteferrem
Philippics 12.5
“All men make mistakes; but it is fools who persist in them”
cuiusvis hominis est errare; nullius nisi insipientis perseverare in errore
On Old Age, 24
“No one is so old that he thinks he could not live another year”
nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere
In Verrem, 1.1.4
“There is nothing so sacred that it cannot be sullied, nor anything so protected that it cannot be overcome by money”.
nihil esse tam sanctum quod non violari, nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit.
Tusculan Disputations, 2.47
“Reason is the mistress and queen of all things”
domina omnium et regina ratio
De Oratore, 3.7
“O, how misleading is the hope of men”
O fallacem hominum spem
So, who’d you rather share a drink with, Cicero or Seneca?
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