February 18th, 2023 Latin of the Day - "Accipere quam facere iniuriam praestat."

 February 18th, 2023 Latin of the Day - "Accipere quam facere inuriam praestat."

"Accipere quam facere  iniuriam praestat."

"It is better to receive an injury than to inflict one." (Remember, as previously noted, Latin iniuria has a wide semantic range, as does English "injury" - its root implies "injustice" rather than physical harm). 

~ based on a passage in Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tusculuan Disputations, v.56

a.d. XII Kalendas Martias anno A.U.C. MMDCCLXXVI 

December 11th Reading from The Daily Stoic (Round 2) - Dignity and Bravery

 "As Cicero says, we hate gladiators if they are quick to save their lives by any means; we favor them if they show contempt for their lives."

~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.4b

December 11th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Dignity and Bravery

"As Cicero says, we hate gladiators if they are quick to save their lives by any means, we favor them if they show contempt for their lives."

~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.4b

Stoic Week 2017, Friday Morning Text For Reflection

Stoic Week 2017, Friday Morning Text for Reflection

"It is important to understand that nature creates in parents affection for their children; and parental
affection is the source from which we trace the shared community of the human race … As it is
obvious that it is natural to us to shrink from pain, so it is clear that we derive from nature itself the
motive to love those to whom we have given birth. From this motive is developed the mutual
concern which unites human beings as such. The fact of their common humanity means that one
person should feel another to be his relative."

~ Cicero, On Ends, 3.62-3

Great Quote from John Adams on Cicero

     Found on p. 61 of The Founders and the Classics by Carl J. Richard, a quote from John Adams in his diary in the winter of 1758 on the pleasures of reading the Latin orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero aloud:

"The Sweetness and Grandeur of his sounds, and the Harmony of his Numbers give Pleasure enough to reward the Reading of one understood none of his meaning. Besides, I find it a noble Exercise. It exercises my Lungs, raises my Spirits, opens my Porrs, quickens the Circulation, and so contributes much to Health."

Ah, Cicero! He's good for your health!