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Cicero de Amicitia (On Friendship) and Scipio's Dream
- GenresClassics
114 pages, Paperback
Published October 9, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 11, 2021
“Friendship is nothing else than entire fellow-feeling as to all things, human and divine, with mutual good-will and affection; and I doubt whether anything better than this, wisdom alone excepted, has been given to man by the immortal gods”.
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
January 1, 2022
(I only read "On Friendship")
To be honest, when reading this work, I find myself feeling both bored and guilty for feeling bored, as though I ought to be more interested. I think that Cicero is tackling an important topic, but I'm not just a fan of his style or perhaps of the translation (Michael Grant did the translation I read). Still, it seems important.
I wonder if C. S. Lewis drew heavily from this when addressing “phileo” in The Four Loves.
Here are some things that struck me:
- "For it is at least a comfort and consolation that I am spared the delusion which causes most people to grieve when their friends have died. For I do not believe Scipio himself has suffered any misfortune, it is myself. But if you let your sorrows at such a happening overwhelm you, this shows how much you love, not your friend, but yourself.”
- “The bonds which nature has established to link on member of the human race with another are innumerable; but friendship not only surpasses them all but is something so choice and selective that its manifestations are normally restricted to two persons and two persons only — or at most extremely few.”
- “Friendship may be defined as a complete identity of feeling about all things in heaven and earth: an identity which is strengthened by mutual goodwill and affection. With the single exception of wisdom, I am included to regard it as the greatest of all the gifts the gods have bestowed upon mankind.”
- “…many rank sensuous pleasures highest of all. But feelings of that kind are something which any animal can experience.”
- “For [friendship] really cannot just be the child of poverty and destitution. If it were, the less confidence a man felt in himself, the better his qualifications for friendship would have to be regarded. But that is far from being the case. Indeed, the contrary is true: the more confidence a person feels in himself, the stronger his equipment of moral and intellectual gifts will be. And although these are qualities that relieve him of dependence upon others and make him feel completely self-sufficient, they will actually strengthen his capacity for making and keeping friends.”
- “As I see it, the Assembly has now broken completely with the Senate, and major policy is settled by the whim of the masses. What we shall find before long is that more people understand how to become agitators than understand how to stop them.”
- “Indeed, if we are going to preserve the value and sincerity of a friendship, there is one such cause of offense that has simply got to be endured. That is to say, you are under an obligation not only to advise your friend frequently but to rebuke him if necessary; and when this is done to yourself, and done in a spirit of goodwill, you must take it in good part.”
- “Cato spoke shrewdly, as so often, when he remarked, ‘In some ways our worst enemies do us greater services than our friends who seem so agreeable: since enemies often tell us the truth, whereas friends never do.’”
To be honest, when reading this work, I find myself feeling both bored and guilty for feeling bored, as though I ought to be more interested. I think that Cicero is tackling an important topic, but I'm not just a fan of his style or perhaps of the translation (Michael Grant did the translation I read). Still, it seems important.
I wonder if C. S. Lewis drew heavily from this when addressing “phileo” in The Four Loves.
Here are some things that struck me:
- "For it is at least a comfort and consolation that I am spared the delusion which causes most people to grieve when their friends have died. For I do not believe Scipio himself has suffered any misfortune, it is myself. But if you let your sorrows at such a happening overwhelm you, this shows how much you love, not your friend, but yourself.”
- “The bonds which nature has established to link on member of the human race with another are innumerable; but friendship not only surpasses them all but is something so choice and selective that its manifestations are normally restricted to two persons and two persons only — or at most extremely few.”
- “Friendship may be defined as a complete identity of feeling about all things in heaven and earth: an identity which is strengthened by mutual goodwill and affection. With the single exception of wisdom, I am included to regard it as the greatest of all the gifts the gods have bestowed upon mankind.”
- “…many rank sensuous pleasures highest of all. But feelings of that kind are something which any animal can experience.”
- “For [friendship] really cannot just be the child of poverty and destitution. If it were, the less confidence a man felt in himself, the better his qualifications for friendship would have to be regarded. But that is far from being the case. Indeed, the contrary is true: the more confidence a person feels in himself, the stronger his equipment of moral and intellectual gifts will be. And although these are qualities that relieve him of dependence upon others and make him feel completely self-sufficient, they will actually strengthen his capacity for making and keeping friends.”
- “As I see it, the Assembly has now broken completely with the Senate, and major policy is settled by the whim of the masses. What we shall find before long is that more people understand how to become agitators than understand how to stop them.”
- “Indeed, if we are going to preserve the value and sincerity of a friendship, there is one such cause of offense that has simply got to be endured. That is to say, you are under an obligation not only to advise your friend frequently but to rebuke him if necessary; and when this is done to yourself, and done in a spirit of goodwill, you must take it in good part.”
- “Cato spoke shrewdly, as so often, when he remarked, ‘In some ways our worst enemies do us greater services than our friends who seem so agreeable: since enemies often tell us the truth, whereas friends never do.’”
March 23, 2013
An interesting treatise on friendship.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews