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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.

1 Answer 1

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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.

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  • 3
    Good find. Nicely done.
    – MCW
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 0:19
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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) Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 0:35
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    This was years ago, so the professor did likely mention the three, but I only remembered the two ‘relatable’ ones. Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 2:53
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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! Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 3:13
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    Travel by water was quite dangerous and uncomfortable back then compared to by land.
    – Joe
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 17:43

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