Cicero, my favorite semi-Stoic, on Socrates:
"Socrates would walk hard till evening and when he was asked why he did so, replied that by walking he was getting hunger as a relish to make a better dinner."
On happiness and self-reliance:
"Most happy is he who is entirely self-reliant, and who centers all his requirements in himself alone."
"I do not perceive why he who is happy requires to be happier.
On our perennial fallibility:
“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:
- Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
- Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
- Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
- Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
- Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
- Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.”
On historical ignorance:
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
His
silver tongue got him in trouble to
the end, but
Robert Harris has brought him back to life. Another good walking companion.
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