Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.111 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.111
If there is any such thing as propriety at all, it can be nothing more than uniform consistency in the course of our life as a whole and all its individual actions. And this uniform consistency one could not maintain by copying the personal traits of others and eliminating one's own. For as we ought to employ our mother-tongue, lest, like certain people who are continually dragging in Greek words, we draw well-deserved ridicule upon ourselves, so we ought not to introduce anything foreign into our actions or our life in general.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.111, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.111
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesActing fittingly means being consistent across your whole life, and you cannot manage that by imitating other people's traits and dropping your own. Just as people who keep dropping in foreign words make themselves look ridiculous, importing foreign habits into your life makes you incoherent.
Older wording
- “propriety”
- — proper, fitting behaviour
- “mother-tongue”
- — your native language
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Nature and the cosmos
- Reputation and others' opinions
- A hard decision
- Searching for meaning
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