That it was abundantly sufficient to reconcile the mind to any of these mischances, to reflect that they are liable to befal the wisest of mankind, and are undoubtedly for the good of the whole." He said, "It was a mere abuse of words to call those things evils, in which there was no moral unfitness: that pain, which was the worst consequence of such accidents, was the most contemptible thing in the world;" with more of the like sentences, extracted out of the second book of Tully's
Tusculan questions, and from the great Lord Shaftesbury.
Cicero, On Duties 1.61 (citing Ennius), 1.7.21;
Tusculan Disputations
While most early modern voyages describe many dangers, as James does, few paraphrase Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations.
That was why Jefferson recommended reading history for its moral "lessons" but he also recommended reading morally uplifting novels like Cervantes's Don Quixote and Sterne's A Sentimental Traveller; ancient ethical works such as Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations and Seneca's Moral Essays; utopian works such as Mercier's LAn 2440 and Harrington's Oceana; and even morally moving sermons, like those of Reverends Sterne, Massillon, and Bourdaloue.
Paideia Romana: Cicero's
Tusculan. Cambridge: Cambridge Philological Society.
(17) Ortelius put a legend below the world map--a quote from Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations (4.37)--that framed the experience of seeing all of the earth in the pages of a book as if from high above: "QUID EI POTEST VIDERI MAGNUM IN REBUS HUMANIS, CUI AETERNITAS OMNIS.
First, we divide all things into those in our power and those that are not (Epictetus, Enchiridion 1; Cicero,
Tusculan disputations V.
The short interval between a copy of De oratore, dated 20 December 1499, and a copy of the
Tusculan Disputations, dated 10 February 1500, shows that it took him about seven weeks to produce a small volume of 200 to 300 pages in italic script with simple decoration.
Cicero in the
Tusculan Disputations (II.xv.35) writes that 'there is some difference between toil (labor) and pain (dolor); they are certainly closely related, but there is a difference: toil is a mental or physical execution of work (opus) or duty of more than usual severity; pain on the other hand is disagreeable movement in the body'.7 In Latin, classical and medieval, there is a distinction between labor with negative connotations (toil, exertion, distress and trouble) and industria (diligence, assiduity, positive effort) which has positive connotations (Hamesse 1990; Sadlek 2004: 66).