10 Nov The Republic and The Laws – Cicero | My Notes
My Notes on The Republic and The Laws by Cicero
[My favorite quotes are emboldened and indented.]
You can have a skill simply by knowing how to prairie it, even if you never do; whereas moral excellence is entirely a matter of practice. Republic Book 1
We are led by a powerful urge to increase the wealth of the human race; we are keen to make men’s lives safer and richer by our policies and efforts; we are spurred on by nature herself to fulfill this purpose. Therefore, let us hold that course which has always been followed by the best men, ignoring the bugle for retreat, which tries to recall those who have already advanced. Book 1
Men who normally think it more miserable to decay in the natural course of old age than to have the chance of laying down, as a supreme gift to their country, the life which in any case would have to be given back to nature. Book 1
So the opportunity of rescuing the country, whatever the dangers that threaten it, does not come suddenly or when you wish it, but only when you are in a position which allows you to do so. Book 1
Nevertheless, in monarchies the rest of the populace plays too small a part in the community’s legislation and debate; in aristocracies the masses can have hardly any share in liberty, since they are deprived of any participation in discussion and decision-making; and when the government is carried on entirely by the people (however moderate and orderly) their equality is itself unequal, since it acknowledges no degrees of merit. Bk 1
If, however, a free people chooses the men to whom it will entrust itself, and if, with a genuine desire for security, it chooses only the best men, then without a doubt the security of such states depends on the policies of aristocrats, especially as nature has decreed not only that men of superior character and ability should be in charge of the less endowed, but also that the latter should willingly obey their superiors. Bk 1
Paragraph on Populism: “But they maintain that this ideal state has been ruined by people who cannot think straight–people who, knowing nothing about worth (which resides in a few, and is discerned and assessed by a few), imagine that aristocrats are those with large fortunes and possessions or those who belong to famous families. When, as a result of this vulgar misconception, a few with money, not worth, have gained control of the state, those leaders seize the name of ‘aristocrats’ with their teeth, though lacking any right to it in fact. Money, name, and property, if divorced from good sense and skill in living one’s own life and directing the lives of others, lapse into total degradation and supercilious insolence. Bk. 1
But what can be more splendid than a state covered by worth, where the man who gives orders to others is not the servant of greed, where the leader himself has embraced all the values which he preaches and recommends to his citizens, where he imposes no laws on the people which he does not obey himself, but rather presents his own life to his fellows as a code of conduct? Bk 1
…states are better governed and controlled by the king’s sole power and authority when the influence of all the best men is allowed to act upon the absolute monarch. Bk 2
He thus safeguarded a principle which should always be observed in politics, namely that the greatest power should not rest with the greatest number. Bk 2
Thus Servius’ system ensured that the mass of the people was neither excluded from the right to vote (for that would have been high-handed), nor given too much power, which would have been dangerous. Bk 2
Thus, while no one was deprived of the right to vote, the greatest voting power lay in the hands of those who were most concerned that the state should be in the best possible order. Bk 2
Still, take the man who, as we often saw in Africa, sits on an enormous wild beast, controlling it and directing it wherever he wishes and turning the great brute this way and that by a gentle touch or word of command–now he is a man of good sense. Bk 2.
If, however, one has to choose between these paths to wisdom, then, even though some people think that a life passed quietly in the study of the highest arts is happier, there can be no doubt that the statesman’s life is the more admirable and more illustrious. Bk 3
If nature had laid down our system of justice, every country would have the same laws, and one country would not have different laws at different times. Bk 3
These people maintain that a wise man is not good because he takes pleasure in goodness and justice in themselves for their own sake, but because good men live a life which is free from fear, worry, anxiety, and danger, whereas the wicked always have some qualms which they can’t get out of their minds, continual visions of trials and punishments; that no profit or reward, if dishonestly obtained, is enough to make up for the constant dread, the conviction that some punishment is constantly at hand or constantly impending. Bk 3
What is true of individuals is also true of nations. No state is so stupid as not to prefer wicked domination to virtuous subjection. Bk 3
And so the death of a state is never nature, as it is with a person, for whom death is not only inevitable but also frequently desirable. Bk 3
Actually there is no state to which I should be quicker to refuse the name of republic than the one which is totally in the power of the masses…I don’t see how there is any stronger case for applying the name of republic to a state enslaved by the mob…that rabble is just as tyrannical as one man, and all the more repellent in that there is nothing more monstrous than a creature which masquerades as a public and usurps its name.
The aim of a ships captain is a successful voyage; a doctor’s, health; a general’s, victory. So the aim of our ideal statesman is the citizens’ happy life–that is, a life secure in wealth, rich in resources, abundant in renown, and honorable in its moral character. Bk5
Nothing in a state should be so free from corruption as a vote and a verdict. Bk 5
The Laws
But one cannot embark on a thing of such importance when one’s program of work is full and one’s mind is already occupied. Two things are needed: freedom from work and freedom from worry. Laws Book 1
Ignorance rather than knowledge of the law leads to litigation. Bk 1
And Socrates was right to curse the man who first separated self-interest from justice; for that, he complained, was the source of everything pernicious. Bk 1.
In my law I have enacted that in beginning, waging, and ending a ware justice and good faith should be the most influential factors, and that there should be official spokesmen in connection with such matters. Bk 2
In fact it is true to say that a magistrate is a speaking law, and a law a silent magistrate. Bk 3
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