Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.13 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.13
Then, too, there would surely be no exportation of our superfluous commodities or importation of those we lack, did not men perform these services. By the same process of reasoning, without the labour of man's hands, the stone needful for our use would not be quarried from the earth, nor would "iron, copper, gold, and silver, hidden far within," be mined. And how could houses ever have been provided in the first place for the human race, to keep out the rigours of the cold and alleviate the discomforts of the heat; or how could the ravages of furious tempest or of earthquake or of time upon them afterward have been repaired, had not the bonds of social life taught men in such events to look to their fellow-men for help?
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.13, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.13
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 notesTrade, mining, building and repair all depend on people working together. When storms, earthquakes or time damage our homes, the bonds of social life are what teach us to turn to each other for help.
Older wording
- “superfluous”
- — surplus, more than needed
- “quarried”
- — cut out of the earth as stone
- “ravages”
- — destructive damage
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
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