Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.22 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.22
But since, as Plato has admirably expressed it, we are not born for ourselves alone, but our country claims a share of our being, and our friends a share; and since, as the Stoics hold, everything that the earth produces is created for man's use; and as men, too, are born for the sake of men, that they may be able mutually to help one another; in this direction we ought to follow Nature as our guide, to contribute to the general good by an interchange of acts of kindness, by giving and receiving, and thus by our skill, our industry, and our talents to cement human society more closely together, man to man.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.22, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.22
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 notesWe are not born for ourselves alone: our country and our friends have a claim on us, and people exist to help one another. Following nature means contributing to the common good by giving and receiving kindnesses and using our skills and effort to bind society closer.
Older wording
- “industry”
- — hard work and diligence
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
- Duty and roles
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Nature and the cosmos
- Friendship
- Searching for meaning
Quote cards
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