My books are full of dog-ears. I often find passages that I like, mark them and promptly forget all about them. If I don’t forget about them, I still can’t find them. Often I can’t remember what book it was in, who said it or even where I put the book.

So, to help me keep track of these things, I’m going to start jotting them down here. There’s no set schedule but I’ll try to do it on weekends. Mainly, it’ll just be when it happens and I feel like it. Some of these may be of interest to the reader.

You’ll get to see what I’m reading and take in the best parts from it.

And who better to start with than Marcus Tullius Cicero? No one. That’s who.

“I put the question to you: Let us suppose that there are two men, one of whom is thoroughly upright and honorable, a man of consummate justice and unique integrity, while the other is a man of extraordinary depravity and shamelessness. And let us assume that the state in which they live is so misguided as to believe the good man a monster of unspeakable criminality, while, on the other hand, it considers the scoundrel to be a model of uprightness and good faith. Let us suppose further that, in conformity with this error on part of the citizens, the good man is persecuted, harassed, has his hands cut off and his eyes gouged out, is condemned, cast into chains, tortured by fire, exiled and reduced to destitution. Finally, let us assume that he is universally regarded as justly meriting his wretched position. On the other hand, let us suppose that the evil man is praised, honored and esteemed by all; that all sorts of offices, civil and military, and every form of influence and wealth are conferred upon him; and that he is universally held to be an excellent man, fully deserving the best gifts fortune can bestow. I ask you then: Who under these circumstances will be so mad as to doubt which of the two lots he would prefer?”

–Marcus Tulllius Cicero: “On the Commonwealth”