Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.12 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.12
The same classification may likewise be made of the things that are injurious and hurtful. But, as people think that the gods bring us no harm, they decide (leaving the gods out of the question) that men are most hurtful to men. As for mutual helpfulness, those very things which we have called inanimate are for the most part themselves produced by man's labours; we should not have them without the application of manual labour and skill nor could we enjoy them without the intervention of man. And so with many other things: for without man's industry there could have been no provisions for health, no navigation, no agriculture, no ingathering or storing of the fruits of the field or other kinds of produce.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.12, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.12
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 notesPeople are the biggest source of harm to one another, but also the source of nearly everything useful. Even natural resources and food supplies become usable only through human labour and skill.
Older wording
- “inanimate”
- — lifeless, not alive
- “ingathering”
- — harvesting
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
- Nature and the cosmos
Quote cards
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