Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.42 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.42
Next in order, as outlined above, let us speak of kindness and generosity. Nothing appeals more to the best in human nature than this, but it calls for the exercise of caution in many particulars: we must, in the first place, see to it that our act of kindness shall not prove an injury either to the object of our beneficence or to others; in the second place, that it shall not be beyond our means; and finally, that it shall be proportioned to the worthiness of the recipient; for this is the corner-stone of justice; and by the standard of justice all acts of kindness must be measured. For those who confer a harmful favour upon someone whom they seemingly wish to help are to be accounted not generous benefactors but dangerous sycophants; and likewise those who injure one man, in order to be generous to another, are guilty of the same injustice as if they diverted to their own accounts the property of their neighbours.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.42, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.42
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 notesGenerosity should obey three limits: it must not harm the person you help or anyone else, it must not exceed your means, and it should fit the worthiness of the recipient. Helping someone in a way that hurts them makes you a dangerous flatterer, and giving to one person by injuring another is plain injustice.
Older wording
- “beneficence”
- — doing good for others
- “sycophants”
- — flatterers who say what pleases
Themes and situations
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Justice and fairness
- Friendship
- Wealth and poverty
- An ethical dilemma
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