De Officiis, Cicero

"a distinction has gradually sprung up between what is expedient and what is right. But the implication that something can be right without being expedient, or expedient without being right, is the most pernicious error that could possibly be introduced into human life."

As this quote suggests, Cicero's De Officiis covers, in three books, what is right, what is expedient, and how to deal with the erroneous appearance that the two are in conflict with each other. Sometimes titled "On Duties" or "On Moral Duties" or "On Obligations", Cicero wrote this as a letter to his son and in it, offers him (and others; it seems impossible he did not intend wider publication as well) a system of behavior in which the practical and the virtuous turn out to be the same thing. Convenient, that!

"There is no part of life, neither public nor private, neither forensic nor domestic, neither in how you conduct yourself nor in your dealings with others, when is it possible to be free from appropriate action."

This is a big one. It is one of the most influential works of moral philosophy, only the third book to be printed after the invention of the printing press, classed with Plato and Aristotle in importance. De Officiis is a spring that western civilization has returned to from the birth of the Roman Empire to the Elizabethan age to the Enlightenment to today, when we will read it. Of course such a mighty foundation will have many translations for you to choose from. I'm reading the Oxford World's Classics edition (paid link), translated by P. G. Walsh. There's a Loeb volume if you'd like to learn some Latin while you're at it, and it's easy to find for free online as well.

Although Cicero is not exactly a Stoic and De Officiis is not one of the big three of Stoicism (all of which we've visited since the beginning of O.S.S.I), this work, particularly the first two of the three books, is pretty heavily influenced by Stoicism, so at least some of it will be familiar to our veterans. You have four weeks to read this, which should be enough given that Cicero wrote this in only four weeks, and at a time of considerable turmoil and danger no less. So take heart and get started! We will meet as before at Vino's in Fort Lauderdale, on the 16th of June at 7 PM. See you there!