Suppose, then, that a good man had such power that at a snap of his fingers his name could steal into rich men's wills, he would not avail himself of that power--no, not even though he could be perfectly sure that no one would ever suspect it.
As part of a thought experiment exploring the limits of moral integrity, Cicero describes how a truly good person would reject ill-gotten gains, even if undetectable.
Share
More from Cicero
But my soul, I know not how, refusing to be kept down, ever fixed its eyes upon future ages, as though from a conviction that it would begin to live only when it had left the body.
Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least?
Other voices in this conversation
