Customer Reviews

Cicero, Volume XXI. On Duties (De Officiis): De Officiis (Loeb Classical Library No. 30)

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De Officiis, or "On Duties," was the second book printed on Gutenberg's printing press. Apparently, Gutenberg and his other contemporaries knew how important the press was so they wanted to give props to the Bible, as the most important book ever written/compiled-but along those lines he decided to print Cicero's classic shortly thereafter. Cicero wrote this book as a series of letters to his prodigal child, who had little ambition to be a correct man, like his father was. Consequently, it reads like good advice from your father.

Some of the greatest logos on ethics comes from this book. He will convince you that being an ethical person is the only way to live, and he does it through expediency-"whether the action contemplated is or is not conducive to comfort and happiness in life, to the command of means and wealth, to influence, and to power." The gist of it is that having good moral character will bring you more expediency in the long run than any illicit behavior. Maintaining power, increasing wealth and influence will naturally be easiest to those men and women with high moral character.

Most books on ethics and morality are not widely credible. The reason is that those great books are religious texts, claimed by those sects to be inspired by God, which is why they are incredible to many who are not members of that particular faith. But Cicero's De Officiis is recognized by all-because it is a secular book. So if you want to quote a high authority on morality, quote Cicero. Here is a preview of the good quotes: "For self control is the foe of the passions, and the passions are the handmaids of pleasure."

It is a well done translation with both the english and latin making for easy reading. The subject is as appropriate today as when Cicero wrote it to his son.