Amic. 23.1Quō etiam magis vituperanda est reī maximē necessāriae tanta incūria.All the more, then, is such great neglect of a thing so very necessary to be blamed. Amic. 23.1Ūna est enim amīcitia in rēbus hūmānīs, dē cuius ūtilitāte omnēs ūnō ōre cōnsentiunt;For friendship is the one thing in human life about whose usefulness all agree with one voice; Amic. 23.1quamquam ā multīs virtūs ipsa contemnitur et venditātiō quaedam atque ostentātiō esse dīcitur;although virtue itself is despised by many and said to be a kind of self-advertisement and display; Amic. 23.1multī dīvitiās dēspiciunt, quōs parvō contentōs tenuis vīctus cultusque dēlectat;many despise riches, being content with little and delighting in a meagre diet and dress; Amic. 23.1honōrēs vērō, quōrum cupiditāte quīdam īnflammantur, quam multī ita contemnunt, ut nihil inānius, nihil esse levius exīstiment!and as for offices, with desire for which some are inflamed, how many despise them so much that they think nothing emptier, nothing more trivial! Amic. 23.1Itemque cētera, quae quibusdam admīrābilia videntur, permultī sunt quī prō nihilō putent.So too with the other things which seem admirable to some, there are very many who think them worth nothing.
Amic. 23.1Dē amīcitiā omnēs ad ūnum idem sentiunt;About friendship all, to a man, think the same; Amic. 23.1et eī quī ad rem pūblicam sē contulērunt, et eī quī rērum cognitiōne doctrīnāque dēlectantur, et eī quī suum negōtium gerunt ōtiōsī;both those who have devoted themselves to public life, and those who delight in knowledge and learning, and those who mind their own business at leisure; Amic. 23.1postrēmō eī quī sē tōtōs trādidērunt voluptātibus, sine amīcitiā vītam esse nūllam, sī modo velint aliquā ex parte līberāliter vīvere.and lastly those who have given themselves wholly to pleasure feel that without friendship life is nothing, if only they wish to live in some degree like free men. Amic. 23.87Serpit enim nesciō quō modō per omnium vītās amīcitiā nec ūllam aetātis dēgendae ratiōnem patitur esse expertem suī.For friendship somehow creeps through the lives of all, and allows no way of spending one's life to be without it. Amic. 23.87Quīn etiam sī quis asperitāte eā est et immānitāte nātūrae, congressūs ut hominum fugiat atque ōderit, quālem fuisse Athēnīs Tīmōnem nesciō quem accēpimus, tamen is patī nōn possit, ut nōn anquīrat aliquem, apud quem ēvomat virus acerbitātis suae.Indeed, even if someone is of such harshness and savagery of nature that he shuns and hates the company of men, as we are told some Timon or other was at Athens, yet even he could not bear not to seek out someone on whom to vomit the venom of his bitterness.
Amic. 23.87Atque hoc maximē iūdicārētur, sī quid tāle possit contingere, ut aliquis nōs deus ex hāc hominum frequentiā tolleret et in sōlitūdine uspiam collocāret atque ibi suppeditāns omnium rērum quās nātūra dēsīderat, abundantiam et cōpiam, hominis omnīnō aspiciendī potestātem ēriperet—quis tam esset ferreus quī eam vītam ferre posset cuique nōn auferret frūctum voluptātum omnium sōlitūdō?And this would be best judged if something like this could happen: that some god should take us away from this crowd of men and set us somewhere in solitude, and there, supplying us with an abundance and plenty of all the things that nature desires, should take from us altogether the chance of seeing a human being; who would be so made of iron that he could bear that life, and from whom solitude would not take away the enjoyment of all pleasures? Amic. 23.88Vērum ergō illud est, quod ā Tarentīnō Archȳtā, ut opīnor, dīcī solitum nostrōs senēs commemorāre audīvī ab aliīs senibus audītum: sī quis in caelum ascendisset nātūramque mundī et pulchritūdinem sīderum perspexisset, īnsuāvem illam admīrātiōnem eī fore, quae iūcundissima fuisset, sī aliquem cui narrāret habuisset.True, then, is that saying which, I believe, Archytas of Tarentum used often to repeat, as I have heard our old men recall, who had heard it from other old men: that if anyone had ascended into heaven and beheld the nature of the universe and the beauty of the stars, that wonder would be unpleasing to him, though it would have been most delightful if he had had someone to tell it to.
Amic. 23.88Sīc nātūra sōlitārium nihil amat semperque ad aliquod tamquam adminiculum adnītitur, quod in amīcissimō quōque dulcissimum est.So nature loves nothing solitary, and always leans upon something as a kind of prop, and this is sweetest in the dearest friend.