[80]
In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned
with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than
the being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the
greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues. What is filial
affection, but a grateful inclination towards one's parents?—who
are good citizens, who are they who deserve well of their country both in
war and at home but they who recollect the kindness which they have received
from their country?—who are pious men who are men attentive to
religious obligations, but they who with proper honours and with a grateful
memory acquit themselves to the immortal gods of the gratitude which they
owe to them?—what pleasure can there be in life, if friendships be
taken away?—and, moreover, what friendship can exist between
ungrateful people?—
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.