On the record44 BC
For what difference does it make whether a man is actually transformed into a beast or whether, keeping the outward appearance of a man, he has the savage nature of a beast within?
Said by
Cicero
Source
gutenberg.orgCicero: “For what difference does it make whether a man is actually transformed into a beast or whether, keeping the outward…”
Editor's note · Context
Cicero poses a rhetorical question in his treatise on moral duties, emphasizing that a man's inner savagery is as destructive as a physical transformation into a beast.
Share
More from Cicero
44 BC
But for the most part, people are led to wrong-doing in order to secure some personal end; in this vice, avarice is generally the controlling motive.
44 BC
Such acts of generosity are not to be so highly esteemed as those which are performed with judgment, deliberation, and mature consideration.
44 BC
For self-control is the foe of the passions, and the passions are the handmaids of pleasure.
44 BC
And it is a great man's duty in troublous times to single out the guilty for punishment, to spare the many, and in every turn of fortune to hold to a true and honourable course.
Other voices in this conversation
