Dear Readers,
Thank you for reading and listening this week! Below is a short contemplation from Cicero on friendship, along with links to this week’s meditations and videos. Be wise and be well!
📿 The Virtue of Friendship
This week’s contemplation comes from the Roman statesman and orator Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC). In his Treatise on Friendship, Cicero wrote,
Let me repeat then, ‘The clear indication of virtue, to which a mind of like character is naturally attracted, is the beginning of friendship.’ When that is the case, the rise of affection is a necessity. For what can be more irrational than to take delight in many objects incapable of response, such as office, fame, splendid buildings, and personal decoration, and yet to take little or none in a sentient being endowed with virtue, which has the faculty of loving or, if I may use the expression, loving back? For nothing is really more delightful than a return of affection and the mutual interchange of kind feelings and good offices.
Cicero continues,
Can anything be more foolish than that men who have all the opportunities which prosperity, wealth, and great means can bestow, should secure all else which money can buy—horses, servants, splendid upholstering, and costly plate—but do not secure friends, who are, if I may use the expression, the most valuable and beautiful furniture of life?
Contemplation Questions (Pick one or create your own!):
How can you remember to invest your time in friendships?
What does it mean to practice the virtue of friendship?
This Week’s Videos…
This Week’s Meditations…
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Thank you for reading/listening this week; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions!