HomeQuotesCicero
Stoic philosophy
Nature has given us friendship as the handmaid of virtue, not as a partner in guilt.
Cicero
Laelius de Amicitia (On Friendship), section 83, c. 44 BC
Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh · Stoic philosophy
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What this means, and why it matters to a father

Cicero argues that genuine friendship is inseparable from virtue — it assists a person toward the good, not away from it.

There is more to this one. The full context — the events behind the words, what the author was living through, and how it applies to the specific situations of fatherhood — is in the app under Deeper Understanding.

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