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What Would Stoics Do

Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE

Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶14 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

From “Whether Virtue Alone Be Sufficient for a Happy Life”

Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶14

M. What, then? is your happy life left on the outside of the prison, while constancy, dignity, wisdom, and the other virtues are surrendered up to the executioner, and bear punishment and pain without reluctance?
— Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶14 · tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)Read in context →

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Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶14, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/5.14

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences

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A pointed question in the debate: if virtues like courage and wisdom can stay with a person facing the executioner, why would happiness be left behind at the prison door?

Themes and situations

  • Virtue and character
  • Courage
  • Adversity and hardship

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Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶14, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)