Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.69 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.69
Owing to the low ebb of public sentiment, such a method of procedure, I find, is neither by custom accounted morally wrong nor forbidden either by statute or by civil law; nevertheless it is forbidden by the moral law. For there is a bond of fellowship—although I have often made this statement, I must still repeat it again and again—which has the very widest application, uniting all men together and each to each. This bond of union is closer between those who belong to the same nation, and more intimate still between those who are citizens of the same city-state. It is for this reason that our forefathers chose to understand one thing by the universal law and another by the civil law. The civil law is not necessarily also the universal law; but the universal law ought to be also the civil law. But we possess no substantial, life-like image of true Law and genuine Justice; a mere outline sketch is all that we enjoy. I only wish that we were true even to this; for, even as it is, it is drawn from the excellent models which Nature and Truth afford. For how weighty are the words:
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.69, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.69
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 notesSome deceptive dealing is neither condemned by custom nor banned by law, yet the moral law forbids it, because a bond of fellowship unites all people and is strongest among those who share a city. The civil law should match the universal law, but we have only a rough sketch of true justice, and we should at least live up to that.
Older wording
- “low ebb of public sentiment”
- — a decline in public moral standards
- “statute”
- — a written law
Themes and situations
- Justice and fairness
- Community and our duty to others
- Nature and the cosmos
- An ethical dilemma
Quote cards
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