De Officiis
1466
Written in the autumn of 44 BC, in the shadow of Caesar's assassination and the chaos consuming Rome, this treatise is Cicero's final gift to his son Marcus: a manual for living with integrity in a corrupt world. Addressing the young man studying in Athens, Cicero weaves together Stoic philosophy and Roman political wisdom into something far more urgent than academic philosophy. He explores what we owe to ourselves and to society, what constitutes true advantage versus mere greed, and most thrillingly, what happens when honorable action and personal interest appear to pull in opposite directions. The result is a work that thinks seriously about moral compromise without surrendering to cynicism. Cicero insists, with passionate conviction, that the truly advantageous can never be separated from the honorable. This became the foundational text of Western political ethics, influencing Augustine, medieval scholars, the Renaissance humanists, and the American founders. It endures because it addresses the same dilemma that haunts every serious person: how to succeed in a world that often rewards dishonor, without becoming what you despise.
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“Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Freedom will bite back more fiercely when suspended than when she remains undisturbed.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Of this last kind of comparisons is that quoted from the elder Cato, who, when asked what was the most profitable thing to be done on an estate, replied, “To feed cattle well.” “What second best?” “To feed cattle moderately well.” “What third best?” “To feed cattle, though but poorly.” “What fourth best?” “To plough the land.” And when he who had made these inquiries asked, “What is to be said of making profit by usury?” Cato replied, “What is to be said of making profit by murder?””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Il y a encore de certains devoirs à remplir envers même de qui nous avons reçu une injure; car la vengeance et la punition ont aussi leurs bornes. Je ne sais même si repentir de celui qui a fait l'injure ne suffirait pas et pour l'empêcher d'en faire une semblable à l'avenir et pour retenir les autres dans le devoir.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“a distinction has gradually sprung up between what is expedient and what is right. But the implication that something can be right without being expedient, or expedient without being right, is the most pernicious error that could possibly be introduced into human life.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow-men; of considerateness , not to wound their feelings; and in this the essence of propriety is best seen.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Optime autem societas hominum conjunctioque servabitur, si, ut quisque erit conjunctissimus, ita in eum benignitatis plurimum conferetur. (...)Homo, qui erranti comiter monstrat viam,Quasi lumen de suo lumine accendat, facitNihilo minus ipsi lucet, cum illi accenderit.””
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
