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[85]
Therefore, I repeat the
injunction, for it should be said again and again:
you should love your friend after you have appraised
[p. 193]
him; you should not appraise him after you have
begun to love him.1 But we are punished for our
negligence in many things, and especially are we
most grievously punished for our carelessness in the
choice and treatment of our friends; for we deliberate
after the event, and we do what the ancient proverb
forbids—we argue the case after the verdict is
found. Accordingly, after we have become involved
with others in a mutual affection, either by long
association or by interchange of favours, some cause
of offence arises and we suddenly break the bonds
of friendship asunder when it has run but half its
course.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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