[56]
And while every virtue attracts
us and makes us love those who seem to possess it,
still justice and generosity do so most of all. Nothing,
moreover, is more conducive to love and intimacy
than compatibility of character in good men; for
when two people have the same ideals and the same
tastes, it is a natural consequence that each loves the
other as himself; and the result is, as Pythagoras
requires of ideal friendship, that several are united
in one.
Another strong bond of fellowship is effected by
mutual interchange of kind services; and as long as
these kindnesses are mutual and acceptable, those
between whom they are interchanged are united by
the ties of an enduring intimacy.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
The Annenberg CPB/Project 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.