Author: Laura Reagan

This author has written 327 articles
Read more about the article Cicero On Duties
Jacques Louis David's The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons

Cicero On Duties

"But when with a rational spirit you have surveyed the whole field, there is no social relation among them all more close and none more dear than that which links each one of us with our country. Parents are dear; children, relatives, friends are dear; but our country has on its own embraced all the affections of all of us together; for which what good man would hesitate to face death, if he could do her a service?" (Cicero, De Officiis 1.57).

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Read more about the article Cicero Tusculan Disputations
Jean Germain Drouais's Marius at Minturnae

Cicero Tusculan Disputations

"But what is this 'bearing'? It is the same as the endurance of labor... we must then apply to the soul that which is called fortitude, which consists of two parts, the contempt of pain and the contempt of death. To these we must bring a certain alertness of mind, so that we may not only not fear, but even despise them." (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 2.53).

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Read more about the article Cicero On the Ends of Good and Evil
The dance to the music of time c. 1640

Cicero On the Ends of Good and Evil

"For if the whole of a man's life is to be measured by the standard of pleasure, you see how much trouble is in store for us. We must consider not what is pleasant, but what is consistent with the dignity of human nature; for there is a certain dignity in man, which the beasts do not share. If we lose sight of this, we shall be unable to maintain any standard of conduct." (Cicero, De Finibus 2.44).

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Read more about the article Cicero On the Commonwealth and On the Laws
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Cicero On the Commonwealth and On the Laws

At this point you will see the political circle turning; you should learn to recognize its natural motion and circuit from the very beginning. This is the essential element of civic prudence (the topic of our entire discussion); to see the paths and turns of commonwealths, so that when you know in what direction any action tends, you can hold it back or anticipate it. Book 2 p.47

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Read more about the article Lucretius On the Nature of the Universe
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Lucretius On the Nature of the Universe

Next, I maintain that mind and spirit are interconnected and compose between them a single substance. But what I may call the head and the dominant force in the whole body is that guiding principle which we term mind or intellect. This is firmly lodge in the mid-region of the breast. Here is the place where fear and alarm pulsate. He is felt the caressing touch of joy. Here, then, is the seat of intellect and mind. The rest of the vital sprit, diffused throughout the body, obeys the mind and moves under its direction and impulse. The mind by itself experiences thought and joy of its own at a time when nothing moves either the body or the spirit. p.70

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Read more about the article Polybius, Histories
Statue of Historian Polybius at the Austrian Parliament

Polybius, Histories

For it is only by observing how each of these constitutions comes into being that one can see when, how, and where the growth, the perfection, the change and the end of each is likely to recur. I believe that the Roman constitution is a better subject than any other for this method of analysis, because its origin and growth have from the very beginning followed natural causes.

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Read more about the article Aristotle, The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
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Aristotle, The Politics and the Constitution of Athens

And therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it is the end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each thing is when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking of a man, a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause and end of a thing is the best, and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best. Hence it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal. (1252b30 - 1253a3)

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