For we contend, for example, with a fellow-citizen in one way, if he is a personal enemy, in another, if he is a rival: with the rival it is a struggle for office and position, with the enemy for life and honour.
Cicero, in his work on moral duties, differentiates between the nature of rivalry and enmity among citizens.
Share
More from Cicero
Now, old age is as it were the playing out of the drama, the full fatigue of which we should shun, especially when we also feel that we have had more than enough of it.
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.
Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least?
Other voices in this conversation
