For when appetite is our master, there is no place for self-control; nor where pleasure reigns supreme can virtue hold its ground.
Cicero: “For when appetite is our master, there is no place for self-control; nor where pleasure reigns supreme can virtue hold…”
Editor's note · Context
From his philosophical treatise on old age, Cicero argues against the dominance of sensual pleasure over reason and virtue.
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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.
For we contend, for example, with a fellow-citizen in one way, if he is a personal enemy, in another, if he is a rival: with the rival it is a struggle for office and position, with the enemy for life and honour.
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.
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.





