Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead
An unjust peace is better than a just war.
Interpretation
Sometimes it is better to accept an imperfect situation than to engage in conflict that causes greater harm.
This quote highlights the idea that the consequences of war—suffering, loss, and destruction—often outweigh the benefits of pursuing justice through violent means. Cicero suggests that in situations where peace can be maintained, even if it is not entirely fair or just, it is preferable to the chaos and devastation brought about by war, which is inherently violent and harmful.
In practice
In a discussion about international relations, one might use this quote to suggest diplomacy over military action.
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.
I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
Well, we think that time "passes," flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see. The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.
One should not interpret the word “Revolution” in its literal sense. Various meanings and significances are attributed to this word, according to the interests of those who use or misuse it. For the established agencies of exploitation it conjures up a feeling of blood stained horror. To the revolutionaries it is a sacred phrase.
True conversion means turning not only from sin but also from depending on self-made righteousness.
Freemasonry teaches not merely temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, brotherly love, relief, and truth, but liberty, equality, and fraternity, and it denounces ignorance, superstition, bigotry, lust tyranny and despotism.
When one feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, he will not do.
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