Cicero on friendship. M. Tullius Cicero, Laelius on friendship, section 1 2022-12-25
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Cicero, a Roman philosopher, lawyer, and statesman, was a strong believer in the value of friendship. In his treatise "On Friendship," Cicero wrote that "nothing is more helpful to a person than a friend." He believed that friendship was a necessity for living a happy and fulfilling life, and that it was one of the most important virtues a person could possess.
According to Cicero, there are three types of friendships: friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure, and friendships of virtue. Friendships of utility are based on mutual benefit, where two people are friends because they can help each other in some way. Friendships of pleasure are based on shared enjoyment, where two people are friends because they enjoy each other's company and share similar interests. Friendships of virtue, however, are the most valuable and enduring type of friendship. These friendships are based on mutual respect, trust, and honesty, and are characterized by a deep and genuine affection for one another.
Cicero argued that friendships of virtue are the most important because they are not based on selfish motives, but rather on a genuine concern for the well-being of the other person. He believed that these friendships are the foundation of a good and happy life, and that they are essential for living a virtuous and moral life. Cicero also believed that true friendships require effort and sacrifice, and that a true friend is someone who is always ready to help and support their friend, even in difficult times.
In addition to the value of friendship, Cicero also recognized the importance of forgiveness in friendships. He argued that friendships are built on mutual trust and understanding, and that it is essential for friends to be able to forgive each other when they make mistakes. Cicero believed that forgiveness is a crucial aspect of maintaining strong and healthy friendships, and that it is important to be able to move past conflicts and misunderstandings in order to preserve the bond of friendship.
Overall, Cicero's views on friendship highlight the importance of genuine affection and concern for others in building strong and lasting relationships. He believed that friendship is a necessary part of living a happy and fulfilling life, and that it is an essential virtue that should be cultivated and nurtured.
Cicero Quotes about Friendship
This is a rare gift, often sought indeed, yet sought in vain, not only by dramatists, who have very seldom attained it, but by authors of a very great diversity of type and culture. Let us account as good the persons usually considered so, such as Paulus, Cato, Gallus, Scipio, and Philus. I seem already to see the people estranged from the Senate, and the most important affairs at the mercy of the multitude. Neither should we give any weight to the doctrine that virtue is something rigid and unyielding as iron. I was acting as assessor to the consuls LĂŚnas and Rupilius to try the conspirators, and Blossius pleaded for my pardon on the ground that his regard for Tiberius Gracchus had been so high that he looked upon his wishes as law.
Man shrinks from solitude. Friendship, as the world sees it, is a bond between two individuals that should not involve betrayal but should exhibit each individual as being trustworthy and loyal. 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. First, there are different types of friends, and confusing one with the other will only leave you frustrated. This inevitable yearning, when it met no human response, found still less to satisfy it in the objects of worship. Well, that is a noble doctrine.
He acted as Coriolanus had acted among us twenty years before. It is related of him that when as a witness in court he had given testimony full, clear, strong, and of the most damnatory character against the person on trial, he protested against the conviction of the defendant on his testimony, if not corroborated, on the principle held sacred in the Jewish law, that it would be a dangerous precedent to suffer the issue of any case to depend on the intelligence and veracity of a single witness. History tells us that they were twice consuls together, and colleagues in the censorship. You may best understand this friendship by considering that, whereas the merely natural ties uniting the human race are indefinite, this one is so concentrated, and confined to so narrow a sphere, that affection is ever shared by two persons only, or at most by a few. What is the point of these remarks? With these premises, then, let us first, if you please, examine the questionâhow far ought personal feeling to go in friendship? But while he was regarded as foremost among the jurists of his time, he professed himself less thoroughly versed in the laws relating to mortgages than two of his coevals, to whom he was wont to send those who brought cases of this class for his opinion or advice. Did Africanus, for example, want anything of me? Aristotle understood the importance of friendship, books VIII and IX of the Nicomachean Ethics deal solely with this topic. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium.
No man held a higher reputation than Scaevola for rigid and scrupulous integrity. When choosing friends, it would be best to pick ones with the same morals. What can be more delightful than to have some one to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself? Again, it is on record that Manius Curius and Tiberius Coruncanius were on the most intimate terms with them and with each other. For this problem, Cicero offers a solution as simple and obvious as it is difficult to achieve: Find a true friend. Virtue and value are the greatest aspect that friendship has today and did have back then.
M. Tullius Cicero, Laelius on friendship, section 1
Everyone has friends, which is why many can relate very easily to the text. Adapted from by Marcus Tullius Cicero, translated and with an introduction by Philip Freeman. And this was at an incident in fiction: what would they have done, must we suppose, if it had been in real life? I briefly touched on this subject just now. Seeing then that the wise are not exempt from the heart-ache which must be the case unless we suppose all human nature rooted out of their hearts , why should we banish friendship from our lives, for fear of being involved by it in some amount of distress? Just walk beside me and be my friend. Why, in a certain sense we may be said to feel affection even for men we have never seen, owing to their honesty and virtue. Cicero knew all about what made friendship work.
Friendships In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he states that there are three types of friendships that can be obtained- the friendship of pleasure, the friendship of utility and the friendship of good. One example of this type of friendship Aristotle gave was friendships with foreigners. His object was to discuss in detail the principles and forms of civil government, to define the grounds of preference for a republic like that of Rome in its best days, and to describe the duties and responsibilities of a good citizen, whether in public office or in private life. These authors are all in the right, and all in the wrong, as to the matter of fact. It takes a long time and a lot of work to build a solid friendship but, according to Cicero, once you have it is the greatest treasure of all. The second type of friendship is based on pleasure. Well, then, my good friends, listen to some conversations about friendship which very frequently passed between Scipio and myself.
Treatises on Friendship and Old Age by Marcus Tullius Cicero
We may then lay down this rule of friendshipâneither ask nor consent to do what is wrong. The best friend of the Roman politician Marcus Cicero was Titus Pomponius, also known as Atticus since he spent many years living in Athens to escape the political chaos and partisan bickering of republican Rome. Or is it not rather true that, although this is an advantage naturally belonging to friendship, yet its original cause is quite other, prior in time, more noble in character, and springing more directly from our nature itself? In this type, you find the other person entertaining, and it is more about the experience of being near the person than anything else. Austere friends: The stoics and friendship. Cicero would be ecstatic to see that the virtue and value of friendship has grown since his time.
It is in our nature. Men who have degraded all their powers of thought to an object so mean and contemptible can of course raise their eyes to nothing lofty, to nothing grand and divine. He would say that friendship has to be built on something more than just a desire for common interests like a job. Without friends, humans would not be able to learn such values from each other, nor will they be able to confide in each other. This last is the highest aim of brutes; the others are fleeting and unstable things and dependent less upon human foresight than upon the fickleness of fortune. For example, in the classroom or workplace it is encouraged to make friends with everyone that you are involved with daily. But when you do, these people will make you a much better person since left on our own we will usually fall into a pit of solipsism and self-pity.
How to Be a Good Friend, According to an Ancient Philosopher
Cicero and Seneca wrote the most important classical Latin texts on friendship. And let us accept the doctrine that the sensation of love and the warmth of inclination have their origin in a spontaneous feeling which arises directly the presence of probity is indicated. This type of friendship is all about getting a benefit from someone else, and it will change according to circumstances. The first type is when it is based on utility. The De Amicitia, inscribed, like the De Senectute, to Atticus, was probably written early in the year 44 b.
