“ For neither goodness nor generosity nor courtesy can exist, any more than friendship can, if they are not sought of and for themselves, but are cultivated only for the sake of sensual pleasure or personal advantage. ”
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties (44 BC). copy citation
| Author | Marcus Tullius Cicero |
|---|---|
| Source | On Duties |
| Topic | friendship goodness |
| Date | 44 BC |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Walter Miller |
| Weblink | http://www.constitution.org/rom/de_officiis.htm |
Context
“for they hold that the height of pleasure is found in the absence of pain. Justice totters or rather, I should say, lies already prostrate; so also with all those virtues which are discernible in social life and the fellowship of human society. For neither goodness nor generosity nor courtesy can exist, any more than friendship can, if they are not sought of and for themselves, but are cultivated only for the sake of sensual pleasure or personal advantage. Let us now recapitulate briefly.
{119} As I have shown that such expediency as is opposed to moral rectitude is no expedieney, so I maintain that any and all sensual pleasure is opposed to moral rectitude.”
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