Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.11 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.11
Of the things, then, that are essential to the sustenance of human life, some are inanimate (gold and silver, for example, the fruits of the earth, and so forth), and some are animate and have their own peculiar instincts and appetites. Of these again some are rational, others irrational. Horses, oxen, and the other cattle, [bees,] whose labour contributes more or less to the service and subsistence of man, are not endowed with reason; of rational beings two divisions are made—gods and men. Worship and purity of character will win the favour of the gods; and next to the gods, and a close second to them, men can be most helpful to men.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.11, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.11
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 notesThe things that sustain human life fall into groups: lifeless goods, animals without reason, and reasoning beings, meaning gods and humans. After the gods, other human beings are the most helpful resource any person has.
Older wording
- “inanimate”
- — lifeless, not alive
- “subsistence”
- — basic means of living
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
- Nature and the cosmos
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