Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.51 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.51
This, then, is the most comprehensive bond that unites together men as men and all to all; and under it the common right to all things that Nature has produced for the common use of man is to be maintained, with the understanding that, while everything assigned as private property by the statutes and by civil law shall be so held as prescribed by those same laws, everything else shall be regarded in the light indicated by the Greek proverb: "Amongst friends all things in common." Furthermore, we find the common property of all men in things of the sort defined by Ennius; and, though restricted by him to one instance, the principle may be applied very generally: "Who kindly sets a wand'rer on his way Does e'en as if he lit another's lamp by his: No less shines his, when he his friend's hath lit." In this example he effectively teaches us all to bestow even upon a stranger what it costs us nothing to give.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.51, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.51
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 notesEverything nature produced for common use should be treated as shared, except what law makes private, as in the proverb that friends share everything. The lesson is to give strangers what costs us nothing, like lighting another's lamp from yours, since your light is not dimmed.
Older wording
- “statutes”
- — written laws
- “civil law”
- — Roman law governing private citizens
Themes and situations
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Community and our duty to others
- Friendship
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.