We have perhaps no better account of the compelling nature and power of friendship than that given by the Roman orator Cicero, who in his classic essay "On Friendship" ("De Amicitia") wrote, If the natural love of friends were to be removed from the world there is no single house, no single state that would go on existing; even agriculture would cease to be. If this seems a bit difficult to understand, we can readily see how great is the power of friend- • ship and love by observing their opposites, enmity and ill will. For what house is so firmly established, what constitution so unshakable that it could not be utterly destroyed by hatred and internal division? From this we may judge how much good there is in friendship.
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机译：也许我们没有比罗马演说家西塞罗（Cicero）所给予的更令人信服的性质和力量了，罗马演说家西塞罗（Cicero）在他的经典论文《论友情》（“ De Amicitia”）中写道，如果要去除朋友的天生爱意，从世界上看，没有一所房子，也没有一个州能够生存下去。甚至农业也将不再存在。如果这看起来有点难以理解，我们可以通过观察他们的对立，敌意和恶意，轻易地看出友谊和爱的力量有多大。对于一个如此牢固地建立起来的房子，什么样的宪法如此不可动摇，以至于它不会因仇恨和内部分裂而彻底毁灭？由此我们可以判断友谊有多少好处。
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