But for our guidance in all such cases we have a rule that is short and easy to master: apparent advantages--political preferment, riches, sensual pleasures, and the like--should never be preferred to the obligations of friendship.
Cicero, in his discussion of duties, provides a guiding principle for prioritizing friendship over superficial advantages.
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There are, on the other hand, two kinds of injustice--the one, on the part of those who inflict wrong, the other on the part of those who, when they can, do not shield from wrong those upon whom it is being inflicted.
For self-control is the foe of the passions, and the passions are the handmaids of pleasure.
For if we bring a certain amount of propriety and order into the transactions of daily life, we shall be conserving moral rectitude and moral dignity.
In my opinion, at least, we should always strive to secure a peace that shall not admit of guile.
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