The civil law is not necessarily also the universal law; but the universal law ought to be also the civil law.
Cicero: “The civil law is not necessarily also the universal law; but the universal law ought to be also the civil law.”
Editor's note · Context
Cicero articulates the ideal relationship where civil statutes should align with the broader principles of universal law.
Share
More from Cicero
And so, when we have leisure from the demands of business cares, we are eager to see, to hear, to learn something new, and we esteem a desire to know the secrets or wonders of creation as indispensable to a happy life.
Besides, he will not expose anyone to hatred or disrepute by groundless charges, but he will surely cleave to justice and honour so closely that he will submit to any loss, however heavy, rather than be untrue to them, and will face death…
From this attitude come greatness of soul and a sense of superiority to worldly conditions.
But while they steer clear of the one kind of injustice, they fall into the other: they are traitors to social life, for they contribute to it none of their interest, none of their effort, none of their means.





