M. Tullius Cicero, De Officiis
Walter Miller, Ed.

[76] If, on¹ the other hand, anyone should desire to unfold the idea of a good man which lies wrapped up in his own mind,² he would then at once make it clear to himself that a good man is one who helps all whom he can and harms nobody, unless provoked by wrong. What shall we say, then? Would he not be doing harm who by a kind of magic spell should succeed in displacing the real heirs to an estate and pushing himself into their place? “Well,” someone may say, “is he not to do what is expedient, what is advantageous to himself?” Nay, verily; he should rather be brought to realize that nothing that is unjust is either advantageous or expedient; if he does not [p. 349] learn this lesson, it will never be possible for him to be a “good man.”