Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.106 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.106
Therefore, those who discuss these problems with more rigour make bold to say that moral wrong is the only evil, while those who treat them with more laxity do not hesitate to call it the supreme evil. Once more, they quote the sentiment: "None have I given, none give I ever to the faithless." It was proper for the poet to say that, because, when he was working out his Atreus, he had to make the words fit the character. But if they mean to adopt it as a principle, that a pledge given to the faithless is no pledge, let them look to it that it be not a mere loophole for perjury that they seek.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.106, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.106
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 notesStricter thinkers call moral wrong the only evil and more lenient ones the greatest evil, and either way a pledge is not cancelled just because the other party is untrustworthy. A line spoken by a wicked character in a play suits that character but must not become a general excuse for breaking oaths.
Older wording
- “laxity”
- — looseness or lack of strictness
- “perjury”
- — breaking an oath or lying under oath
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Justice and fairness
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