“Friendship springs from a natural impulse rather than a wish for help: from an inclination of the heart, combined with a certain instinctive feeling of love, rather than from a deliberate calculation of the material advantage it was likely to confer… on our finding, that is, some one person with whose character and nature we are in full sympathy, because we think that we perceive in him what I may call the beacon-light of virtue. For nothing inspires love, nothing conciliates affection, like virtue.” -Cicero

I chose this quote because friendship is explained in such an articulate way. However, this piece is clearly written for the men of this time. With that in mind, I think that they would have found this writing persuasive because of Cicero’s authority as a politician, philosopher, and an orator. So, it’s easy to believe that many would have taken his word for how to be a friend. This piece was probably written as a manual for men who struggled to make friends. The writer may have even hoped to make some a better man by saying that virtue inspires friendship. On the other hand, those who were less virtuous might disagree with him and say as long as you hang around people who are similar to you, then you will be okay. It’s fair to say that he wasn’t writing to these men. Cicero is saying that friendship comes naturally and cannot be forced. Not only will a need to grow close to someone cause one to want to be friends with another but being masculine and good is also what will attract friendship from another man. Friendship doesn’t happen because we want something “material” from the other person but because we feel that our life can be better by having this other person in our life. Sometimes, people come in our lives, and we have a need to get to know them more intimately. If a person only sees dollar signs or what the other person can do for them, it is doubtful that a true friendship can be born out of that. This quote adds to the purpose of this work that explains that one has to be perfect to have friends because virtue as explained by the author is to have no character flaws.