What else is that but to rob one man of what belongs to him and to give to another what does not belong to him? *84* And what is the meaning of an abolition of debts, except that you buy a farm with my money; that you have the farm, and I have not my money?
Cicero argues against policies like debt abolition, framing them as a fundamental violation of property rights and justice.
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It is, therefore, only a madman who, in a calm, would pray for a storm; a wise man's way is, when the storm does come, to withstand it with all the means at his command, and especially, when the advantages to be expected in case of a…
There are, on the other hand, two kinds of injustice--the one, on the part of those who inflict wrong, the other on the part of those who, when they can, do not shield from wrong those upon whom it is being inflicted.
What a sorry state of servitude for a virtue--to be pandering to sensual pleasure!
Still, I do not mean to find fault with the accumulation of property, provided it hurts nobody, but unjust acquisition of it is always to be avoided.
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