Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.53 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.53
"Yea," Antipater will say, "but you are, as you must admit, if you will only bethink you of the bonds of fellowship forged by Nature and existing between man and man." "I do not forget them," the other will reply; "but do you mean to say that those bonds of fellowship are such that there is no such thing as private property? If that is the case, we should not sell anything at all, but freely give everything away." In this whole discussion, you see, no one says, "However wrong morally this or that may be, still, since it is expedient, I will do it"; but the one side asserts that a given act is expedient, without being morally wrong, while the other insists that the act should not be done, because it is morally wrong.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.53, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.53
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 notesThe debate continues: one side invokes the natural bonds between people, the other objects that these cannot mean there is no private property or that everything must be given away. Both agree that no one should do wrong merely because it is useful; they differ only on whether the act in question is wrong.
Older wording
- “bethink”
- — remember or consider
- “Yea”
- — yes, indeed
Themes and situations
- Justice and fairness
- Community and our duty to others
- Wealth and poverty
- An ethical dilemma
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