Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
Lucius Cassius ille quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum iudicem putabat identidem in causis quaerere solebat 'cui bono' fuisset. The famous Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to regard as a very honest and wise judge, was in the habit of asking, time and again, 'To whose benefit?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding who benefits from an action or decision.
Lucius Cassius, a respected judge in ancient Rome, is highlighted in this quote for his practice of questioning the motivations behind actions by asking 'to whose benefit?'. This reflects a profound wisdom about the nature of decisions and actions, prompting individuals to consider the implications and beneficiaries of various situations, a practice that encourages accountability and critical thinking.
Themes
BenefitWisdomJudgmentDecision MakingAccountability
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on policy changes, one might use this quote to highlight the need for evaluating who will truly benefit from the changes.
More from Marcus Tullius Cicero
All quotes →Those 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
Its not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances. I want my young friends to live like that, and I think they, too, have such a wish.
Hayao MiyazakiRead
They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy.
Baha'U'LlahRead
The pain is what you make of it. You have to find something in it that yields. I understood my guiding imperative as: keep bleeding, but find some love in the blood.
Leslie JamisonRead
Meditation gives you the wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind can exaggerate the severity of a setback, and resist getting drawn into the abyss.
Richard DavidsonRead
There is no short-cut no patent tram-road, to wisdom. After all the centuries of invention, the soul's path lies through the thorny wilderness which must still be trodden in solitude, with bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it was trodden by them of old time.
George EliotRead
You'd think someone who'd been to medical school would be able to hear through a stethoscope that somebody was empty inside.
Jodi PicoultRead