Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
The name of peace is sweet and the thing itself good, but between peace and slavery there is the greatest difference.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Peace is valuable, but it must not come at the cost of freedom or autonomy.
Cicero highlights the importance of peace as a desirable condition but emphasizes that true peace cannot exist if it is achieved through subjugation or oppression. This quote invites reflection on the nature of true freedom and the consequences of sacrificing personal liberties for a superficial sense of tranquility.
Themes
PeaceFreedomSlaveryOppressionAutonomy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice, one could use this quote to emphasize the distinction between genuine peace and oppressive control.
More from Marcus Tullius Cicero
All quotes βThose 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
The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.
Thomas SowellRead
I think if we wish to live in any kind of a moral universe, we must hold the perpetrators of violence responsible for the violence they perpetrate. It's very simple. The criminal is responsible for the crime.
Salman RushdieRead
Gay or straight? So what? It doesn't matter to me. We have to be concerned about other people regardless.
Willie NelsonRead
To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.
Osamu DazaiRead
We must kill the false woman who is preventing the live one from breathing.
Helene CixousRead
With Usura With usura hath no man a house of good stone each block cut smooth and well fitting.
Ezra PoundRead