[7]
But people raise other objections against me—
[p. 175]
and that, too, philosophers and scholars—asking1
whether I think I am quite consistent in my conduct: for although our school maintains that nothing
can be known for certain, yet, they urge, I make a
habit of presenting my opinions on all sorts of subjects and at this very moment am trying to formulate
rules of duty. But I wish that they had a proper
understanding of our position. For we Academicians are not men whose minds wander in uncertainty and never know what principles to adopt.
For what sort of mental habit, or rather what sort
of life would that be which should dispense with all
rules for reasoning or even for living? Not so with
us; but, as other schools maintain that some things
are certain, others uncertain, we, differing with
them, say that some things are probable, others
improbable.
1 Position of the New Academy.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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