The latter way is the easier, especially for a rich man; but the former is nobler and more dignified and more becoming to a strong and eminent man.
Cicero: “The latter way is the easier, especially for a rich man; but the former is nobler and more dignified and more becoming…”
Editor's note · Context
In a treatise on moral duties, this passage compares the ease and nobility of showing kindness through monetary gifts versus personal service.
Share
More from Cicero
Now, those who care for the interests of a part of the citizens and neglect another part, introduce into the civil service a dangerous element--dissension and party strife.
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.
And it is a great man's duty in troublous times to single out the guilty for punishment, to spare the many, and in every turn of fortune to hold to a true and honourable course.
To this passion for discovering truth there is added a hungering, as it were, for independence, so that a mind well-moulded by Nature is unwilling to be subject to anybody save one who gives rules of conduct or is a teacher of truth or…





