But if he believes that while such a course should be avoided, the other alternatives are much worse--namely, death, poverty, pain--he is mistaken in thinking that any ills affecting either his person or his property are more serious than those affecting his soul.
Cicero argues that moral and spiritual harm to one's soul is always more significant than physical suffering or material loss.
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For if we bring a certain amount of propriety and order into the transactions of daily life, we shall be conserving moral rectitude and moral dignity.
For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a pre-eminently great man than courtesy and forbearance.
But for all cases we have one rule, with which I desire you to be perfectly familiar: that which seems expedient must not be morally wrong; or, if it is morally wrong, it must not seem expedient.
In the matter of a promise one must always consider the meaning and not the mere words.
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