Cicero: On Duties (De Officiis)

Cicero reflects on the current state of his life in exile. He has plenty of time for leisure and solitude, but not because he chose either of them. Rather, he can't reenter the city, nor can he conduct his normal business. Instead of getting caught up in despair, though, he's chosen to use his time to write.

After admonishing his son that he has high expectations up to which to live, between being the son of Cicero, and the student of Cratippus, Cicero returns to the issues he's considered in the first two books. He reflects that Panaetius wrote on both honorableness and usefulness, but never wrote about how to decide which action to take when what is honorable conflicts with what is useful. The Stoics, on one hand, claim that honorableness is the only thing that matters, and that whatever is honorable is also useful. The Peripatetics, with whom Cicero's son studies, claim it's the thing that matters the most. For Cicero, honorableness does take precedence over usefulness, but does not fully eclipse it.

He reiterates the importance of never building influence, advantage, nor resources by seizing or imposing on those of others.