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What Would Stoics Do

Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE

On Duties 1.118 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Translation by Walter Miller (1913)

Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.118

For we cannot all have the experience of Hercules, as we find it in the words of Prodicus in Xenophon: "When Hercules was just coming into youth's estate (the time which Nature has appointed unto every man for choosing the path of life on which he would enter), he went out into a desert place. And as he saw two paths, the path of Pleasure and the path of Virtue, he sat down and debated long and earnestly which one it were better for him to take." This might, perhaps, happen to a Hercules, "scion of the seed of Jove"; but it cannot well happen to us; for we copy each the model he fancies, and we are constrained to adopt their pursuits and vocations. But usually, we are so imbued with the teachings of our parents, that we fall irresistibly into their manners and customs. Others drift with the current of popular opinion and make especial choice of those callings which the majority find most attractive. Some, however, as the result either of some happy fortune or of natural ability, enter upon the right path of life, without parental guidance.
— Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.118 · tr. Walter Miller (1913)Read in context →

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Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.118, tr. Walter Miller (1913)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.118

Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences

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AI-written notes

The story of Hercules choosing between the path of Pleasure and the path of Virtue shows a person deliberately weighing how to live, but most of us do not choose so freely: we copy models we admire, absorb our parents' habits, or drift with popular opinion. Some, through luck or talent, find the right path without guidance.

Older wording

“scion”
— a descendant
“imbued”
— thoroughly influenced

Themes and situations

  • Virtue and character
  • Pleasure and pain
  • Learning and progress
  • Duty and roles
  • A hard decision
  • Searching for meaning

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Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.118, tr. Walter Miller (1913)