Cicero is an odd character to me - and I think I like him, because he is so very human. He is smart, witty, philosophical and could have had a long life, but vanity and a need to feel important caused him to make mistakes time and time again. He would even go against his own philosophies because of his need for status.

But, great thinker and tried his best despite failings. I kind of think that is a good role model - try to be better, know you are going to screw up, and keep on trying.

Also - he pokes young people in the eye in a book and I always thought it was funny in a philosophical way:

"And yet is there anyone so foolish, even though he is young, as to feel absolutely sure that he will be alive when evening comes? Nay, even youth, much more than old age, is subject to the accident of death; the young fall sick more easily, their sufferings are more intense, and they are cured with greater difficulty.

Therefore, few arrive at old age...

They say, also, that the old man has nothing even to hope for. Yet he is in better case than the young man, since what the latter merely hopes for, the former has already attained; the one wishes to live long, the other has lived long."

Source: https://newsletter.butwhatfor.com/p/takeaway-tuesday-on-old-...