Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.5 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.5
But, my dear Cicero, while the whole field of philosophy is fertile and productive and no portion of it barren and waste, still no part is richer or more fruitful than that which deals with moral duties; for from these are derived the rules for leading a consistent and moral life. And therefore, although you are, as I trust, diligently studying and profiting by these precepts under the direction of our friend Cratippus, the foremost philosopher of the present age, I still think it well that your ears should be dinned with such precepts from every side and that, if it could be, they should hear nothing else.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.5, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.5
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 notesOf all the branches of philosophy, the study of moral duties is the richest, because it gives the rules for leading a consistent, ethical life, and it is worth hearing again and again. A father urges his student son to keep drilling these lessons.
Older wording
- “precepts”
- — rules or teachings
- “dinned”
- — repeatedly hammered into
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Duty and roles
- Virtue and character
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