“A present loses its value when it is given without the choice of the person who receives it.”
The Other World (1657)
Context: A present loses its value when it is given without the choice of the person who receives it.
Caesar was given death, and so was Cassius. However, Cassius was indebted to the slave who gave it to him, while Caesar owed nothing to his murderers, because they forced him to take it.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Cyrano de Bergerac 57
French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist 1619–1655Related quotes
Sec. 302
The Gay Science (1882)
Source: Across the Plains (1892), Ch. IX, Beggars.
Context: We should wipe two words from our vocabulary: gratitude and charity. In real life, help is given out of friendship, or it is not valued; it is received from the hand of friendship, or it is resented.
“At any given moment the choice to be happy is present — we just have to choose to be happy.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 19
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
Strictly Personal, ch. 31 (1941)
“Choices are easy when you have nothing to lose.”
Source: While My Sister Sleeps
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
1950s, First Inaugural Address (1953)
Context: We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in purpose. We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible--from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.