Marcus Tullius Cicero. Thoughts and sayings (№ 454271)

The human mind has penetrated to the very sky. Of all the animals, only we have the concept of the rising of the stars, their setting and movement. Man has demarcated days, months and years; solar and lunar eclipses are foreseen, they are predicted for the distant future, their volume, their time and their duration are indicated. It is to this great spectacle that man owes his knowledge of the gods, whence flow piety, justice, and all the virtues. Only these latter can give us the happiness of life, which makes us equal to the sacred gods. To complete the similarity, we lack only immortality: but is it necessary for a virtuous life?