Quote of the Day: Cicero on Wit & Attitude

We often believe wisdom is a matter of endlessly collecting more, more tips, more tactics, more contingency plans, right up until the final chapter. But Cicero offers a gentler, more optimistic truth: there comes a time when the highest wisdom isn’t adding to your load, but traveling lighter. “Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.”

At first glance, the line can sound dismissive, even bleak, why learn anything new if time is short? Yet the metaphor is less about shutting down growth and more about choosing the right kind of growth. When the destination is in sight, “provisions” that once felt urgent can become burdens: opinions you don’t need, plans you won’t use, anxieties that masquerade as preparation.

Applied to modern life, this is a reminder to stop treating every season like a startup phase. There is a difference between improvement and accumulation. In later stages, of a career, a relationship, or a life project, progress may look like refinement: fewer commitments, clearer priorities, more honest conversations. You can still pursue growth, but aim it at meaning, not mileage. And if you’re the one offering advice, let it be the kind that frees someone rather than fills their backpack.

Cicero earned his authority the hard way: as Rome’s most celebrated orator and a pivotal statesman of the Republic, he spent a lifetime translating hard political realities into enduring philosophy about character, duty, and the good life.

Today, pick one “provision” you’re carrying out of habit, an obligation, a worry, a deferred decision, and set it down. Use that reclaimed space to practice leadership over your own attention, and walk the rest of the road with steadier breath.