I read this book as a sort of homage to John Adams. John Adams loved Cicero, and almost always had one of his books with him. He read Cicero so much that his son also started reading his writings. Later in life John Quincy Adams said:
“To live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was aprivation of one of my limbs.”
Cicero was a lawyer by training, a philosopher by theory, a statesman by profession, a republican by heart. He refused to take part in any system or portion of government that threatened the republic. At one point he discovered a plot to overthrow the republic (and assassinate him) by a man named Catiline. He proceeded to give four speeches which drove Catiline and his conspirators from the city. Cicero later had them all executed without trial. He spent many years in exile for executing men without a trial, and spent much of that time writing. Here are quotes I have gleaned from his writing, with my thoughts and impressions on a few.
Quotations from Cicero
The most criminal injustice is that of the hypocrite who hides an act of treachery under the cloak of virtue.
It is always bad when we find out someone has been treacherous; or done something evil and destructive. It is so much worse when they covered it up by making it seem like they did it to be virtuous.
If we harm one man in order to be liberal to another we are quite as unjust as if we were to appropriate our neighbor's goods. Many men, however, especially if they are ambitious of honor and glory, lavish on one the spoils of another, expecting to obtain credit as benefactors, if only they enrich their friends by fair means or by foul. Such conduct is absolutely opposed to duty.
This is basically how I view much of politics today. Those who govern don’t create or earn the wealth they distribute. They tax one group and give it to another, then claim “look how many people I’ve helped, or fed, or housed.” They did nothing. It wasn’t their money. They took from one and gave it to another. It’s worse when they give the money to their friends only, or give it to a group to keep their elected position, or to shore up support.
When good men of like character are joined in friendship, there we find the noblest and the strongest union.
I think this is why John Adams and Thomas Jefferson reformed their friendship after a decade of silence. They were good men of like character working toward something great. And that union could be hindered, but not broken.
Whatever we undertake, the most thorough preparation is necessary.
Like the Boy Scouts say “Be Prepared.” I have found that most great events, speeches, shows, concerts, presentations, meetings, reunions, lectures, interviews etc…Spent 95% of the time in planning and preparation, and 5% in the actual event.
There are actually men who through fear of unpopularity will not dare express their opinions, however excellent.
I think this is the effect of political pundits and minority groups. People are afraid to express their opinions. Whatever they say, someone won’t like it. Someone will be intolerant of it, feel slighted or threatened by it…and there will be a pundit to give them a national voice. The excellent opinion will be overrun be negative media, and the author of the idea will be left in ruin.
There is nothing more deplorable than the passion for popularity and the struggle for office.
Just watch an election cycle. I lived in Iowa during the 2008 election cycle….and all I can say is WOW. I have never seen so much excess and waste. I was especially impressed when a candidate was asked to speak for 1 hour about his health care plan…so he told us how much he hated the last president of the opposing party for 1½ hours.
It is above all in the height of our success that we should consult our friends and bow to their authority. At such a season too it is well to beware of the flatterer and close our ears to his seductive words. We are all so well pleased with ourselves that we accept praise as our due; hence the countless blunders of men who, puffed up with vanity, fall a prey to the greatest delusions and bring upon themselves contempt and ridicule.
There are plenty of people who will tell you what you want to hear once your rich and powerful…listen to the people whose opinion mattered back when you were poor and unknown.
It would be inconsistent to master fear but be mastered by desire, to conquer hardship but be conquered by pleasure.
The distinctive faculty of man is his eager desire to investigate truth. Thus, when free from pressing duties and cares, we are eager to see or hear, or learn something new, and we think our happiness incomplete unless we study the mysteries and the marvels of the universe.
What is true, simple and pure is most in harmony with human nature.
A well constituted character will bow to no authority but that of a master or a just and legitimate ruler who aims at the public good.
Honour I say, though praised by no one, is praiseworthy in itself.
It is chiefly for the purpose of satisfying some desire that men commit an injury; and the commonest motive is the love of money.
In neglecting the duty of defending others, men are influenced by various motives. They are reluctant to make enemies: they grudge the trouble and expense; they are deterred by indifference, indolence, and apathy ; or they are so fettered by their own pursuits and occupations as to abandon those whom it is their duty to protect.
We should carefully weigh the merits of those whom we intend to benefit. Let us look to the character of the recipient, his disposition toward us…
For men are most eager to serve one from whom they expect the greatest reward even though he needs no help.
Physicians, generals, and orators, however proficient in the rules of their art, achieve no great success unless they unite theory with practice.
Fortitude has two characteristics. The first is indifference to outward circumstances. It is founded on the conviction that nothing is worthy of the admiration, the desire, or the effort of man except what is honourable and decorous and that he must surrender neither to his fellow-men, to passion, nor to fortune. The second, the natural outcome of this moral temperament, is the ability to perform actions which are not only great and useful, but arduous, laborious, and fraught with danger to life and all that makes life worth living.
That moral dignity, which we find in a noble and lofty spirit, depends, it is true, on force of mind, not on bodily strength; yet we must so train and school the body that it may obey our judgment and reason.
The government of a country resembles the charge of a minor. It must be conducted for the advantage of the governed, not the governors.
Above all, when we inflict punishment, let us put away anger; he who approaches the task in an angry spirit will never observe the happy mean between excess and defect.
When fortune smiles and everything is going to our heart’s desire, it is our duty to abstain from pride, disdain and arrogance.
As bodily beauty attracts the eye by the symmetry of the limbs and charms us by the graceful harmony of all the parts, so the decorum which shines in our conduct engages the esteem of society by the order, consistency and restraint which it imposes on all our words and deeds.
The soul is swayed by two forces; the one is appetite, called by the Greeks Horme, which hurries us this way and that, the other Reason, which teaches us what to do and what to avoid. It follows that reason must command and appetite obey.
Even in a jest there should be some spark of virtue. Jests are of two kinds: some are low, wanton, wicked obscene; others elegant, polished, graceful.
PLATO - “Knowledge without justice is to be accounted cunning rather than wisdom, and even intrepidity, if prompted by personal ambition, and not by public spirit, does not deserve the name of fortitude : audacity is its name"
No comments:
Post a Comment