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[20]
Moreover, how great the power of friendship is may most clearly be recognized from the fact
that, in comparison with the infinite ties uniting the
human race and fashioned by Nature herself, this
thing called friendship has been so narrowed that
the bonds of affection always unite two persons only,
or, at most, a few.
[p. 131]
6. For friendship is nothing else than an accord
in all things, human and divine, conjoined with
mutual goodwill and affection, and I am inclined
to think that, with the exception of wisdom, no
better thing has been given to man by the immortal
gods. Some prefer riches, some good health, some
power, some public honours, and many even prefer
sensual pleasures. This last is the highest aim
of brutes; the others are fleeting and unstable
things and dependent less upon human foresight
than upon the fickleness of fortune. Again, there
are those who place the “chief good” in virtue and
that is really a noble view; but this very virtue is
the parent and preserver of friendship and without
virtue friendship cannot exist at all.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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