August 06, 2026

The Only Lovable Thing

Nothing is more lovable than virtue, nothing that more allures us to love, for because of virtue and uprightness we feel a kind of affection even for those we have never seen.

Cicero wrote this in 44 BC, in the final months of his life, composing De Officiis as a long letter of moral instruction to his son while Rome tore itself apart after Caesar's assassination. In it he argues that nothing draws people together or earns real affection like virtue itself, so much so that we come to admire men of good character we have never even met. This is the heart of the Stoic claim that virtue is the only good: health, wealth, and reputation depend on fortune and other people, but wisdom, justice, courage, and self-command belong entirely to the person who holds them. Because virtue asks nothing of circumstance to be real, it is the one thing that can be built and kept no matter what today brings.

A principle of Stoicism: Virtue Is the Only Good →