For as to material advantages, it often happens that those are obtained even by men who are courted by a mere show of friendship and treated with respect from interested motives.
Cicero: “For as to material advantages, it often happens that those are obtained even by men who are courted by a mere show of…”
Editor's note · Context
Discussing the true nature of friendship, this observation distinguishes genuine affection from relationships motivated solely by material or self-serving interests.
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Don't you think that the soul which has the clearer and longer sight sees that it is starting for better things, while the soul whose vision is dimmer does not see it?
Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least?
I don't wish to depreciate life, as many men and good philosophers have often done; nor do I regret having lived, for I have done so in a way that lets me think that I was not born in vain.
But my soul, I know not how, refusing to be kept down, ever fixed its eyes upon future ages, as though from a conviction that it would begin to live only when it had left the body.





