“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy
knowledgesociety
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Cicero
106–43 BCE · Academic philosophy · Ancient
Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 to 43 BCE, was a Roman advocate, consul, and the man who got Greek philosophy into Latin at full length. He was not the founder of a school. He called himself an Academic, in the tradition that weighs arguments and often withholds a final dogma, and he wrote dialogues in which Stoics, Epicureans, and Academics answer one another.
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On Duties, On the Ends of Goods and Evils, the Tusculan Disputations, On the Nature of the Gods, On Laws, and the Orator are the works that schooled Europe for centuries. He is a source for doctrines whose Greek originals are lost, which means a Ciceronian report of the Stoics is precious and not the same as a Stoic book.
Lines such as the safety of the people being the highest law are maxims inside a dialogue, and later states treated them as tools. Augustine will be converted in part by reading him, and then will try to get past him. Read Cicero as a brilliant transmitter who takes sides, not as a neutral encyclopaedia, and not as a modern liberal who happens to wear a toga.
Start here
On Duties, book 1.
It is continuous prose, it shows his Stoic debts, and it is the Cicero that later Europe actually used.
Quotations
“The safety of the people shall be the highest law.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy
justicepowersociety
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“We are not born for ourselves alone; our country claims a share of our being, and our friends a share.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy
ethicssocietyvirtue
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“Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and set her in the cities of men and bring her into their homes.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy
knowledgesocietyethics
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“Friendship was given to us by nature as the handmaid of virtue, not as a comrade of vice.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy
lovevirtueethics
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Key ideas
Philosophy in Latin
He built the Latin vocabulary in which Europe met Greek ethics, politics, and theology.
Academic weighing
His dialogues often set schools against each other rather than announcing a single doctrine from the start.
Natural law
On Laws ties Roman institutions to a rational law above mere procedure, a move with a long and dangerous afterlife.
Duties
On Duties argues that what is honourable and what is useful do not finally conflict for the good person.
Major works
On Duties (De Officiis) (44 BCE)
A letter-treatise to his son on honourable action, drawn heavily from the Stoic Panaetius.
On Laws (De Legibus) (c. 52 BCE)
A dialogue that puts Roman public law under a philosophical account of natural law.
Orator (46 BCE)
A work on the ideal speaker, which includes the claim that ignorance of history keeps a person a child.
Influences
Influenced
Common misreadings
- 'The safety of the people is the highest law' is a proposed maxim in a dialogue, not a blank cheque for emergency power.
- He is a source for Stoicism and Epicureanism, which is not the same as being a Stoic or an Epicurean.
Famous lines Cicero never said
None of the lines this library files for Cicero is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
On Duties, book 1. It is continuous prose, it shows his Stoic debts, and it is the Cicero that later Europe actually used.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Cicero that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.” (Orator 120, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Cicero is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Philosophy in Latin: He built the Latin vocabulary in which Europe met Greek ethics, politics, and theology.