Lesson · 4 min Steady
The Grain Ship
In one line Cicero held that a gain won by dishonesty is not truly useful. Test the profit against what is right.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman and orator of the first century BCE, did much to bring Greek philosophy into Latin. In his last years he wrote On Duties for his son. It draws on the Stoic Panaetius, though Cicero himself leaned to the Academic skeptics in matters of knowledge.
Its central claim is that the honorable and the useful cannot truly conflict. What seems useful but is wrong only looks useful. Cicero tests this with hard cases. A merchant brings grain to Rhodes during a famine and knows that more ships are on the way. May he keep quiet and sell at a high price?
Two Stoics had disagreed about the case. Cicero sided with the stricter one: hiding the news to profit from others’ ignorance is a kind of deceit.
Go deeper
Cicero adds a second case: a man selling a house he knows is unhealthy, though buyers do not. The law of the time did not require him to speak, but Cicero says good faith does. He was writing in 44 BCE, after Caesar’s murder, as the republic he served was collapsing. He was killed the next year on the orders of Mark Antony, whom he had attacked in speeches.
The used car
Dev is selling his car and knows the gearbox will need repair soon. The buyer has not asked, and the law where he lives does not require him to say.
He weighs the extra money against how he would feel if the buyer learned the truth later. He tells the buyer and lowers the price a little. The sale is smaller, and he can look the buyer in the eye.
Try this today When a choice seems profitable but you would not want it known, ask Cicero’s question: is it honorable?
Cite or share this lesson
A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “The Grain Ship.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/lesson/the-grain-ship. Accessed 13 November 2026.
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Cicero” — Covers Cicero’s Academic stance, On Duties and On Friendship.
- Cicero, On Duties, book 3 (LacusCurtius) — The grain merchant at Rhodes and the house seller, and the claim that the honorable and the useful cannot truly conflict. Paraphrase.