Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 2.55 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.55
One's purse, then, should not be closed so tightly that a generous impulse cannot open it, nor yet so loosely held as to be open to everybody. A limit should be observed and that limit should be determined by our means. We ought, in a word, to remember the phrase, which, through being repeated so very often by our countrymen, has come to be a common proverb: "Bounty has no bottom." For indeed what limit can there be, when those who have been accustomed to receive gifts claim what they have been in the habit of getting, and those who have not wish for the same bounty? There are, in general, two classes of those who give largely: the one class is the lavish, the other the generous. The lavish are those who squander their money on public banquets, doles of meat among the people, gladiatorial shows, magnificent games, and wild-beast fights—vanities of which but a brief recollection will remain, or none at all.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 2.55, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/2.55
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 notesKeep your wallet neither clamped shut nor open to everyone, and let your means set the limit, because endless giving creates endless expectations. The lavish waste money on shows that are quickly forgotten, which is different from true generosity.
Older wording
- “bounty”
- — generous giving
- “doles”
- — free handouts
- “lavish”
- — extravagant, spent without restraint
Themes and situations
- Wealth and poverty
- Self-discipline and habit
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Simplicity and frugality
- Money, status and wanting more
Quote cards
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