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In my undergrad I took a Roman History/Culture class and remember the professor mentioning someone who died naming two regrets:

  1. He once told a secret to a woman
  2. He once spent a day idle/doing nothing

The second of which I find very inspiring. I would like to know the identity of this man/read more about him.

MCW
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Wasalu Ahmed
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1 Answers1

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Plutarch's Lives says this about Marcus Cato:

He would likewise say ... and that in his whole life he most repented of three things; one was, that he had trusted a secret to a woman; another, that he went by water when he might have gone by land; the third, that he had remained one whole day without doing any business of moment.

kimchi lover
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    Good find. Nicely done. – MCW Jan 03 '20 at 00:19
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    Indeed, nice match! But 2Qs: Was he the only match, or did you stop searching after a 'hit"? 2: I wonder why/how etc land/sea got edited out of the teacher quote, being quite specific also about the total number.? (both, entriely optional though) – LаngLаngС Jan 03 '20 at 00:35
  • @LаngLаngС Thanks! I stopped at the first hit (a quote site google found gave me Cato so then I looked at Plutarch), as it seemed to be the sort of book that had nuggets that would stick in a professor's mind. I assume the prof himself edited the sea/land thing out of his memory, not the OP. – kimchi lover Jan 03 '20 at 00:40
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    This was years ago, so the professor did likely mention the three, but I only remembered the two ‘relatable’ ones. – Wasalu Ahmed Jan 03 '20 at 02:53
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    To me him not liking to travel by water is weirder than him being a misogynist and a workaholic, so I'd remember than one longer than the other 2! – kimchi lover Jan 03 '20 at 03:13
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    Travel by water was quite dangerous and uncomfortable back then compared to by land. – Joe Jan 03 '20 at 17:43
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    @Joe But it was much faster than travelling by land, which doesn’t fit well with the third point about regretting wasting time. – Mike Scott Jan 03 '20 at 19:15
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    @MikeScott I think it's safe to assume that " when he might have gone by land" means "when it was practical to go by land." – barbecue Jan 04 '20 at 18:52
  • @kimchilover: not enough information to call him a misogynist, without knowing whether she kept his confidence, betrayed it, blackmailed him etc. And Plutarch doesn't tell us. – smci Jan 06 '20 at 16:06
  • @smcl You are right, I oversimplified. Sorry about that, Cato. – kimchi lover Jan 06 '20 at 17:03