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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But if I am wrong in thinking the human soul immortal, I am glad to be wrong; nor will I allow the mistake which gives me so much pleasure to be wrested from me as long as I live.
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.
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.
Oh glorious day when I shall set out to join that heavenly conclave and company of souls, and depart from the turmoil and impurities of this world!
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