[38]
11. As, then, this superiority of mind to such1
externals inspires great admiration, so justice,
above all, on the basis of which alone men are called
“good men,” seems to people generally a quite marvellous virtue—and not without good reason; for no
one can be just who fears death or pain or exile or
poverty, or who values their opposites above equity.
And people admire especially the man who is uninfluenced by money; and if a man has proved himself
in this direction, they think him tried as by fire.
Those three requisites, therefore, which were presupposed as the means of obtaining glory, are all
secured by justice: (1) good-will, for it seeks to be
of help to the greatest number; (2) confidence, for
the same reason; and (3) admiration, because it scorns
and cares nothing for those things, with a consuming passion for which most people are carried away.
1 Justice is the best way to popularity.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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