Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶25–27 — 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 ¶25–27
A. I wish that, indeed, myself. But I want a little information. For I allow that in what you have stated the one proposition is the consequence of the other: that as, if what is honorable be the only good, it must follow that a happy life is the effect of virtue, so that if a happy life consists in virtue, nothing can be good but virtue. But your friend Brutus, on the authority of Aristo and Antiochus, does not see this, for he thinks the case would be the same even if there were anything good besides virtue. M. What, then? do you imagine that I am going to argue against Brutus? A. You may do what you please, for it is not for me to prescribe what you shall do.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 5 ¶25–27, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/5.25
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA technical exchange in which the student grants that if only virtue is good then virtue yields a happy life, and notes that Brutus holds virtue sufficient even if other goods exist, pressing the teacher on whether he will argue against Brutus.
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
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