A friend is, as it were, a second self.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman orator, lawyer and statesman, and one of the most influential writers of Latin. Alongside his speeches he wrote philosophical treatises that carried Greek thought into Latin — among them On Friendship, written after the death of his closest friend. He was killed in the political violence following Caesar's death.
About this theme: Friendship
Aristotle gave friendship two books of the Nicomachean Ethics, more than he gave justice, and distinguished three kinds: friendship for use, for pleasure, and for the friend's own sake. The first two last as long as the reason lasts; the third is rare and slow, and the only one he considered complete.
More by Cicero
More on Friendship
- No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.— Charles Dickens
- A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.— Elbert Hubbard
- Associate with people who are likely to improve you.— Seneca
- If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.— Booker T. Washington
- Correction does much, but encouragement does more.— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe