The Value of Philosophy

Above all, the search after truth and its eager pursuit are peculiar to men. And so, when we have leisure from the demands of business cares, we are eager to see, to hear, to learn something new, and we esteem a desire to know the secrets or wonders of creation as indispensable to a happy life. This we come to understand that what is true, simple, and genuine appears most strongly to a man’s nature. To this passion for discovering truth there is added a hungering, as it were, for independence, so that a mind well-molded by Nature is unwilling to be subject to anybody save one who gives rules of conduct or is a teacher of truth or who, for the general good, rules according to justice and law. From the attitude come greatness of soul and a sense of superiority to worldly conditions. (Cicero, De Morales/Miller Book 1 13)