Quotation
Last reviewed:
“We are not born for ourselves alone; our country claims a share of our being, and our friends a share.”
Cicero · Academic philosophy · Ancient · 44 BCE
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the line as a check on private plans: a life is already shared with a country and with friends, so duty is not an optional extra after self-interest. A competing reading hears only nationalism, but the same sentence gives friends a share, and the chapter goes on to mutual help rather than to obedience. It stands near the start of De Officiis, the book on fitting action that Cicero addressed to his son. He is borrowing a Platonic point and making it Roman and practical.
Did Cicero really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Miller's English of Cicero's Latin. Cicero says Plato put it admirably, then uses it as a premise of his own book on duties. The sentence is his, and the credit to Plato is part of the sentence.
Where it comes from
De Officiis 1.22, in Walter Miller's Loeb translation
Approximate date: 44 BCE.
How to use it
Choosing a job in Bristol that pays more but strands a parent who has been relying on Tuesday visits is not a neutral private optimisation. The sentence does not write the rota for you. It refuses the pretence that the only person with a claim is the one holding the offer letter.
A mindset reading
Before calling a choice 'mine to make', list who already has a share in the time and the skill. That list can be abused by people who invent claims. The habit is to test the claim, not to deny that any claim exists. Self-fashioning that starts from zero is the picture he is blocking.
Understand the philosophy
Officium is the key term: what is fitting, a duty tied to a role, not a mood of public spirit. Cicero is writing after the assassination of Caesar, with the republic in pieces, and he still argues from partnership rather than from survival alone. He names Plato because he wants Greek authority for a Roman lesson. The book is advice to a son, which is why friends and country appear before any theory of the state.
- ethics
- society
- virtue
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the line as a check on private plans: a life is already shared with a country and with friends, so duty is not an optional extra after self-interest. A competing reading hears only nationalism, but the same sentence gives friends a share, and the chapter goes on to mutual help rather than to obedience. It stands near the start of De Officiis, the book on fitting action that Cicero addressed to his son. He is borrowing a Platonic point and making it Roman and practical.
Did Cicero really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Miller's English of Cicero's Latin. Cicero says Plato put it admirably, then uses it as a premise of his own book on duties. The sentence is his, and the credit to Plato is part of the sentence.
Which work is it in?
De Officiis 1.22, in Walter Miller's Loeb translation Approximate date: 44 BCE.