Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 1.67 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.67
All the glory and greatness and, I may add, all the usefulness of these two characteristics of courage are centred in the latter; the rational cause that makes men great, in the former. For it is the former that contains the element that makes souls pre-eminent and indifferent to worldly fortune. And this quality is distinguished by two criteria: (1) if one account moral rectitude as the only good; and (2) if one be free from all passion. For we must agree that it takes a brave and heroic soul to hold as slight what most people think grand and glorious, and to disregard it from fixed and settled principles. And it requires strength of character and great singleness of purpose to bear what seems painful, as it comes to pass in many and various forms in human life, and to bear it so unflinchingly as not to be shaken in the least from one's natural state of the dignity of a philosopher.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 1.67, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/1.67
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 first trait of courage, rising above outside circumstances, is the source of true greatness, and it rests on two things: treating moral goodness as the only real good, and freeing yourself from disturbing emotion. It takes strength and steadiness to look down on what the crowd finds grand and to bear pain without losing your composure.
Older wording
- “moral rectitude”
- — being morally upright
- “passion”
- — a disturbing emotion like anger or fear
Themes and situations
- Courage
- Virtue and character
- Emotions and the passions
- Resilience and endurance
- What is in our control
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