[148]
But no rules need to be given about what is done1
in accordance with the established customs and conventions of a community; for these are in themselves
rules; and no one ought to make the mistake of
supposing that, because Socrates or Aristippus did
or said something contrary to the manners and established customs of their city, he has a right to do the
same; it was only by reason of their great and superhuman virtues that those famous men acquired this
special privilege. But the Cynics' whole system of
philosophy must be rejected, for it is inimical to moral
sensibility, and without moral sensibility nothing
can be upright, nothing morally good.
1 The laws of the state are rules of duty.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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