Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶95–96 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
From “On the Contempt of Death”
Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶95–96
Now, should all the lower order of philosophers (for so I think they may be called who dissent from Plato and Socrates and that school) unite their force, they never would be able to explain anything so elegantly as this, nor even to understand how ingeniously this conclusion is drawn. The soul, then, perceives itself to have motion, and at the same time that it gets that perception, it is sensible that it derives that motion from its own power, and not from the agency of another; and it is impossible that it should ever forsake itself. And these premises compel you to allow its eternity, unless you have something to say against them. A. I should myself be very well pleased not to have even a thought arise in my mind against them, so much am I inclined to that opinion.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶95–96, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/1.95
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesConcluding Plato's argument: the soul senses that its motion comes from itself and not from outside, so it can never abandon itself and must be eternal. The friend admits he would be glad not to have any objection arise.
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Death and mortality
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.