pickHis various letters are illuminating, his Philippic against Antony is furious & damning, and his expositions on Duties & Old Age are still relevant today. The style in his written letters & essays may be more accessible to modern readers than his speeches, which can get long in the tooth. But stick with it. As a window into Ancient Rome & into the mind of the most celebrated orator of his time, his insight is still penetrating & meaningful.
"Life's course is invariable - nature has one path only, and you cannot travel along it more than once. Every stage of life has its own characteristics: boys are feeble, youths in their prime are aggressive, middle-aged men are dignified, old people are mature. Each one of these qualities is ordained by nature for harvesting in due season." - from On Old Age
"Consider the paradox of a person who admits the wickedness of tyrannizing a country....but who nevertheless sees advantage in himself becoming its tyrant if he can....Who, in God's name, could possibly derive advantage from murdering his country? Of all murders that is the most hideous...even when its perpetrator is hailed, by the citizens he has trodden underfoot, as 'Father of his Country'."
"So everyone ought to have the same purpose: to identify the interest of each with the interest of all. Once men grab for themselves, human society will completely collapse."
"...neglect of the common interest is unnatural, because it is unjust... nature's law promotes and coincides with the common interest."
So even in Cicero's day, "competition [was] the law of the jungle, but cooperation [was] the law of civilization." (Pyotr Kropotkin)
"For honesty is not particularly virtuous when there is no one with the ability or ambition to corrupt it."
Not if you have a black 👍 like me, I could kill a plastic plant 🤣🤣
#QuotsyJun20 #gardening
@TK-421
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
I'm grateful for my little slice of #nature in my backyard and all the peace it brings me. My favorite place to read is by the pond where I can see both my flower beds. Even this time of year, I am enjoying some stubborn roses.
#Gratitude30
Reposted from @mostly_succulents on Instagram
That feeling when you run out of notepaper and have to start writing in the book. This extensive marginalia is probably contemporaneous with the text c.1575. The book is a volume that binds together several works by Cicero 🤤
Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!
Politicians are not born; they are excreted.
Selected Works (Cicero, Marcus Tullius) | 
