Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.36 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.36
The third, then, of the three conditions I named as essential to glory is that we be accounted worthy of the esteem and admiration of our fellow-men. While people admire in general everything that is great or better than they expect, they admire in particular the good qualities that they find unexpectedly in individuals. And so they reverence and extol with the highest praises those men in whom they see certain pre-eminent and extraordinary talents; and they look down with contempt upon those who they think have no ability, no spirit, no energy. For they do not despise all those of whom they think ill. For some men they consider unscrupulous, slanderous, fraudulent, and dangerous; they do not despise them, it may be; but they do think ill of them. And therefore, as I said before, those are despised who are "of no use to themselves or their neighbours," as the saying is, who are idle, lazy, and indifferent.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.36, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.36
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 notesAdmiration is won by exceptional talent and unexpected excellence, while people look down on those who seem lazy, spiritless or useless to themselves and others. Being thought wicked is different from being despised: the unscrupulous are distrusted, but the idle are held in contempt.
Older wording
- “unscrupulous”
- — willing to act without moral limits
- “extol”
- — praise highly
- “pre-eminent”
- — standing out above others
Themes and situations
- Reputation and others' opinions
- Virtue and character
- Ambition and success
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