Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.50 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.50
The interests of society, however, and its common bonds will be best conserved, if kindness be shown to each individual in proportion to the closeness of his relationship. But it seems we must trace back to their ultimate sources the principles of fellowship and society that Nature has established among men. The first principle is that which is found in the connection subsisting between all the members of the human race; and that bond of connection is reason and speech, which by the processes of teaching and learning, of communicating, discussing, and reasoning associate men together and unite them in a sort of natural fraternity. In no other particular are we farther removed from the nature of beasts; for we admit that they may have courage (horses and lions, for example); but we do not admit that they have justice, equity, and goodness; for they are not endowed with reason or speech.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.50, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.50
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 notesKindness works best when matched to how close people are to us. The deepest human bond is reason and speech, which let us teach, learn and discuss together, and which separate us from animals that may show courage but not justice or goodness.
Older wording
- “fraternity”
- — brotherhood, fellowship
- “equity”
- — fairness
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
- Nature and the cosmos
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Family and love
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