Posts by Cassius

VS59. It is not the stomach that is insatiable, as is generally said, but the false opinion that the stomach needs an unlimited amount to fill it.

VS58. We must free ourselves from the prison of public education and politics.

VS57. On occasion a man will die for his friend, for if he betrays his friend, his whole life will be confounded by distrust and completely upset.

VS32. The veneration of the wise man is a great blessing to those who venerate him.

VS12. The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance. See PD17.

VS56. The wise man feels no more pain, when being tortured himself than when his friend is tortured.

#VS55. We must heal our misfortunes by the grateful recollection of what has been, and by the recognition that it is impossible to undo that which has been done.

Note: See the discussion of the background of this issue in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Part 3, Sections 15-18

VS54. We must not pretend to study philosophy, but study it in reality, for it is not the appearance of health that we need, but real health.

VS53. We must envy no one, for the good do not deserve envy, and the bad, the more they prosper, the more they injure themselves.

VS50. No pleasure is a bad thing in itself, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail disturbances many times greater than the pleasures themselves.

VS49. It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he does not know the Nature of the universe, but still gives some credence to myths. So, without the study of Nature, there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

VS48. We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content.

VS46. Let us utterly drive from us our bad habits, as if they were evil men who have long done us great harm.

VS45. The study of nature does not make men productive of boasting or bragging, nor apt to display that culture which is the object of rivalry with the many, but high-spirited and self-sufficient, taking pride in the good things of their own minds and not of their circumstances.

VS44. The wise man, when he has accommodated himself to straits, knows better how to give than to receive, so great is the treasure of self-sufficiency which he has discovered.

VS43. The love of money, if unjustly gained, is impious, and, if justly gained, is shameful; for it is unseemly to be parsimonious, even with justice on one’s side.

VS40. "The man who says that all things come to pass by necessity cannot criticize one who denies that all things come to pass by necessity: for he admits that this too happens of necessity."

VS39. "He is no friend who is continually asking for help, nor he who never associates help with friendship. For the former barters kindly feeling for a practical return, and the latter destroys the hope of good in the future."

VS38. "He is a little man in all respects who has many good reasons for quitting life."

VS37. Nature is weak toward evil, not toward good: because it is saved by pleasures, but destroyed by pains."