4 quotations linked to Laelius on Friendship by or associated with Cicero, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Friendship, trust, frank speech, shared joy, adversity, human nature and Cicero’s philosophical praise of durable companionship.
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“Is not prosperity robbed of half its value if you have no one to share your joy?”
Good fortune becomes more meaningful when it can be shared, making companionship part of the value of prosperity itself.
Laelius on Friendship; the surrounding passage pairs shared joy with support during misfortune.
“What can be more delightful than to have some one to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself?”
Close friendship creates a rare space for frank speech because confidence in the other person removes the need for continual self-protection.
Laelius on Friendship, translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh in Project Gutenberg’s Treatises on Friendship and Old Age.
“You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life; for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.”
Friendship is treated not as an optional ornament but as one of the basic goods that makes ordinary life worth inhabiting.
Laelius on Friendship, Shuckburgh translation.
“Regard friendship as the greatest thing in the world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity.”
Cicero presents friendship as suited to human nature because it serves both celebration and hardship rather than belonging to only one circumstance.
Laelius on Friendship; Laelius frames friendship as useful and natural in both good and difficult times.
