Can anything be so pliable, so wavering, as the mind of a man whose attitude depends not only on another's feeling and wish, but on his very looks and nods?
Cicero: “Can anything be so pliable, so wavering, as the mind of a man whose attitude depends not only on another's feeling and…”
Editor's note · Context
Cicero uses a rhetorical question to describe the extreme instability of a person whose opinions are entirely dictated by others' expressions and desires.
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For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a pre-eminently great man than courtesy and forbearance.
Further than this, who fails to see that those promises are not binding which are extorted by intimidation or which we make when misled by false pretences?
Besides, he will not expose anyone to hatred or disrepute by groundless charges, but he will surely cleave to justice and honour so closely that he will submit to any loss, however heavy, rather than be untrue to them, and will face death…
In my opinion, at least, we should always strive to secure a peace that shall not admit of guile.





