Cicero on duty

This evening, I came across an old Notepad file that I put together a few months ago. I had intended to post its contents immediately after finishing Cicero's book, but I put it aside for some reason. I present it now.

Excerpts from my most recent reading project, De Officiis (translation by Walter Miller).

On the sources of morality
But all that is morally right arises from some one of four sources: it is concerned either with the full perception and intelligent development of the true; or with the conservation of organized society, with rendering to every man his due, and with the faithful discharge of obligations assumed; or with the greatness and strength of a noble and invincible spirit; or with the orderliness and moderation of everything that is said and done, wherein consist temperance and self-control.

On the role of justice
The first office of justice is to keep one man from doing harm to another, unless provoked by wrong; and the next is to lead men to use common possessions for the common interests, private property for their own. . . . The foundation of justice, moreover, is good faith — that is, truth and fidelity to promises and agreements.

On just cause for war
The only excuse, therefore, for going to war is that we may live in peace unharmed; and when the victory is won, we should spare those who have not been bloodthirsty and barbarous in their warfare.

On the family
For since the reproductive instinct is by Nature's gift the common possession of all living creatures, the first bond of union is that between husband and wife; the next, that between parents and children; then we find one home, with everything in common. And this is the foundation of civil government, the nursery, as it were, of the state.

On incivility in politics
A most wretched custom, assuredly, is our electioneering and scrambling for office. Concerning this also we find a fine thought in Plato: "Those who compete against one another," he says, "to see which of two candidates shall administer the government, are like sailors quarrelling as to which one of them shall do the steering." And he likewise lays down the rule that we should regard only those as adversaries who take up arms against the state, not those who strive to have the government administered according to their convictions.

On fine houses
The truth is, a man's dignity may be enhanced by the house he lives in, but not wholly secured by it; the owner should bring honor to his house, not the house to its owner.

On humanity
In a word, not to go into details, it is our duty to respect, defend, and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship subsisting between all members of the human race.

On the duties of scholars
And so, if that virtue which centers in the safeguarding of human interests, that is, in the maintenance of human society, were not to accompany the pursuit of knowledge, that knowledge would seem isolated and barren of results. In the same way, courage (fortitude), if unrestrained by the uniting bonds of society, would be but a sort of brutality and savagery. Hence it follows that the claims of human society and the bonds that unite men together take precedence of the pursuit of speculative knowledge. . . . Every duty, therefore, that tends effectively to maintain and safeguard human society should be given the preference over that duty which arises from speculation and science alone.

On the practical value of philosophy
Since, therefore, there can be no doubt on this point, that man is the source of both the greatest help and the greatest harm to man, I set it down as the peculiar function of virtue to win the hearts of men and to attach them to one's own service. And so those benefits that human life derives from inanimate objects and from the employment and use of animals are ascribed to the industrial arts; the cooperation of man, on the other hand, prompt and ready for the advancement of our interests, is secured through wisdom and virtue.

On the best way to maintain power
But, of all motives, none is better adapted to secure influence and hold it fast than love; nothing is more foreign to that end than fear. For Ennius says admirably: Whom they fear they hate. And whom one hates, one hopes to see him dead. And we recently discovered, if it was not known before, that no amount of power can withstand the hatred of the many. . . . But those who keep subjects in check by force would of course have to employ severity — masters, for example, toward their servants, when these cannot be held in control any other way. But those who in a free state deliberately put themselves in a position to be feared are the maddest of the mad. . . . Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered. Let us, then, embrace this policy, which appeals to every heart and is the strongest support not only of security but also of influence and power — namely, to banish fear and cleave to love.

On the sources of glory
The highest, truest glory depends upon the following three things: the affection, the confidence, and the mingled admiration and esteem of the people.

On the purpose of government
The reason for making constitutional laws was the same as that for making kings. For what people have always sought is equality of rights before the law. For rights that were not open to all alike would be no rights. If the people secured their end at the hands of one just and good man, they were satisfied with that; but when such was not their good fortune, laws were invented, to speak to all men at all times in one and the same voice.