summum bonum
Americannoun
noun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After all, if what is good for a nation is more important than what is good for a family, surely the greatest good, the secular summum bonum, is the good of the human race.
From Salon • Aug. 23, 2011
The modern student of monasticism, bred in an age which regards freedom as its summum bonum and holds discipline at a discount, cannot but feel sympathy with the nuns.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen
The summum bonum he placed in a life according to virtue.
From The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by Cicero by Yonge, Charles Duke
The summum bonum of their desires and aspirations is to pass smoothly and quietly through life.
From The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind by Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
At this time of life too, tranquillity is the summum bonum.
From Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States by Van Buren, Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
