Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.113 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.113
How much Ulysses endured on those long wanderings, when he submitted to the service even of women (if Circe and Calypso may be called women) and strove in every word to be courteous and complaisant to all! And, arrived at home, he brooked even the insults of his men-servants and maidservants, in order to attain in the end the object of his desire. But Ajax, with the temper he is represented as having, would have chosen to meet death a thousand times rather than suffer such indignities! If we take this into consideration, we shall see that it is each man's duty to weigh well what are his own peculiar traits of character, to regulate these properly, and not to wish to try how another man's would suit him. For the more peculiarly his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.113, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.113
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 notesUlysses put up with years of hardship and even the insults of servants to reach his goal, while Ajax with his temperament would have preferred death a thousand times to such indignity. The lesson is to weigh your own character honestly and not try on someone else's, since the more a way of living is your own, the better it fits.
Older wording
- “complaisant”
- — eager to please
- “brooked”
- — put up with
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Resilience and endurance
- Insult and criticism
- Nature and the cosmos
- Being criticised or insulted
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