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.
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More from Cicero
Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least?
Nay, if some god should grant me to renew my childhood from my present age and once more to be crying in my cradle, I would firmly refuse; nor should I in truth be willing, after having, as it were, run the full course, to be recalled from…
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.
But if I am wrong in thinking the human soul immortal, I am glad to be wrong; nor will I allow the mistake which gives me so much pleasure to be wrested from me as long as I live.





