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[26]
Finally, if a man wrongs his neighbour to gain
some advantage for himself, he must either imagine
that he is not acting in defiance of Nature or he
must believe that death, poverty, pain, or even the
loss of children, kinsmen, or friends, is more to be
shunned than an act of injustice against another.
If he thinks he is not violating the laws of Nature,
when he wrongs his fellow-men, how is one to argue
with the individual who takes away from man all
that makes him man? But if he believes that, while
such a course should be avoided, the other alternatives are much worse—namely, death, poverty, pain
—he is mistaken in thinking that any ills affecting
either his person or his property are more serious
than those affecting his soul.
6. This, then, ought to be the chief end of all1
men, to make the interest of each individual and of
the whole body politic identical. For, if the individual
appropriates to selfish ends what should be devoted
to the common good, all human fellowship will be
destroyed.
1 The interest of society is the interest of the individual.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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