Will any man call a person honest, who, having a deposit of ten pounds of gold made to him without any witness, so that he might take advantage of it with impunity, shall restore it, and yet should not do the same in the case of ten thousand pounds?
Can a man be accounted temperate who checks one inordinate passion and gives a loose to another?
Virtue is uniform, conformable to reason, and of unvarying consistency; nothing can be added to it that can make it more than virtue; nothing can be taken from it, and the name of virtue be left. If good offices are done with an upright intention, nothing can be more upright than upright is; and therefore it is impossible that anything should be better than what is good.
It therefore follows that all vices are equal; for the obliquities of the mind are properly termed vices. Now we may infer, that as all virtues are equal, therefore all good actions, when they spring from virtues, ought to be equal likewise; and therefore it necessarily follows, that evil actions springing from vices, should be also equal.
Can a man be accounted temperate who checks one inordinate passion and gives a loose to another?
Virtue is uniform, conformable to reason, and of unvarying consistency; nothing can be added to it that can make it more than virtue; nothing can be taken from it, and the name of virtue be left. If good offices are done with an upright intention, nothing can be more upright than upright is; and therefore it is impossible that anything should be better than what is good.
It therefore follows that all vices are equal; for the obliquities of the mind are properly termed vices. Now we may infer, that as all virtues are equal, therefore all good actions, when they spring from virtues, ought to be equal likewise; and therefore it necessarily follows, that evil actions springing from vices, should be also equal.
—from Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes 3
If I look at it from the side of my circumstances, then one crime can be radically different from another, either more or less severe, but if I look at it from the side of my character, then every crime does my soul an identical amount of harm. A virtue is the complete affirmation of my humanity, and thus it can become no better, while a vice is a complete rejection of my humanity, and thus it can become no worse.
This takes some getting used to. It is not a denial of our complexity, where both good and bad are at work within us, nor does it ignore the very real consequences of our choices. It rather asks us to measure our progress by the fulfillment of our whole being, instead of just subtracting some points over here, and then adding a few more over there.
Once again, I find both of Cicero’s examples to be extremely helpful. A man may commit fraud at the corner store for $10, or he may commit fraud on the stock market for $10 million, yet the duplicity itself is just the same. Another fellow may give up the booze for the new year, and he then starts to gorge himself on donuts, yet the gluttony itself is just the same.
When I worked in social services, it was common for the staff to lift their lunch money out of the petty cash box; the boss wasn’t looking, and surely no one would care about such a small amount. There was much outrage and pearl-clutching, however, when it turned out that a manager had paid for his vacation to San Francisco on the company credit card. Crucify him!
When I was in college, I found myself in a circle with unwritten rules about cheating on girlfriends or boyfriends. If you fooled around when you were drunk, this was considered a harmless amusement, but if you dared to go all the way when you were sober, you would face the wrath of the entire community. I was not surprised when so many of my peers later had failed marriages.
Over the years, I have grappled with countless temptations, some of which I mastered, many others which I allowed to master me. One of my greatest mistakes was to underestimate the little enticements, thinking it more important to take giant leaps instead of baby steps. I was forgetting how a man who cannot be good in small things cannot be good in big things, because any vice, at any scale, is equally an affront to his dignity. To sell myself for a trinket is as bad as selling myself for a kingdom.
As the perfection of our very nature, there is nothing higher than virtue. As the denial of our very nature, there is nothing lower than vice. Though the debts we owe to others may be greater or lesser, the debts we owe to ourselves are always absolute.
If I look at it from the side of my circumstances, then one crime can be radically different from another, either more or less severe, but if I look at it from the side of my character, then every crime does my soul an identical amount of harm. A virtue is the complete affirmation of my humanity, and thus it can become no better, while a vice is a complete rejection of my humanity, and thus it can become no worse.
This takes some getting used to. It is not a denial of our complexity, where both good and bad are at work within us, nor does it ignore the very real consequences of our choices. It rather asks us to measure our progress by the fulfillment of our whole being, instead of just subtracting some points over here, and then adding a few more over there.
Once again, I find both of Cicero’s examples to be extremely helpful. A man may commit fraud at the corner store for $10, or he may commit fraud on the stock market for $10 million, yet the duplicity itself is just the same. Another fellow may give up the booze for the new year, and he then starts to gorge himself on donuts, yet the gluttony itself is just the same.
When I worked in social services, it was common for the staff to lift their lunch money out of the petty cash box; the boss wasn’t looking, and surely no one would care about such a small amount. There was much outrage and pearl-clutching, however, when it turned out that a manager had paid for his vacation to San Francisco on the company credit card. Crucify him!
When I was in college, I found myself in a circle with unwritten rules about cheating on girlfriends or boyfriends. If you fooled around when you were drunk, this was considered a harmless amusement, but if you dared to go all the way when you were sober, you would face the wrath of the entire community. I was not surprised when so many of my peers later had failed marriages.
Over the years, I have grappled with countless temptations, some of which I mastered, many others which I allowed to master me. One of my greatest mistakes was to underestimate the little enticements, thinking it more important to take giant leaps instead of baby steps. I was forgetting how a man who cannot be good in small things cannot be good in big things, because any vice, at any scale, is equally an affront to his dignity. To sell myself for a trinket is as bad as selling myself for a kingdom.
As the perfection of our very nature, there is nothing higher than virtue. As the denial of our very nature, there is nothing lower than vice. Though the debts we owe to others may be greater or lesser, the debts we owe to ourselves are always absolute.
—Reflection written in 5/1999
IMAGE: Briton Riviere, The Temptation in the Wilderness (1898)
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