[23]
The foundation of justice, moreover, is good faith—1
that is, truth and fidelity to promises and agreements. And therefore we may follow the Stoics,
who diligently investigate the etymology of words;
and we may accept their statement that “good faith”
is so called because what is promised is “made good,”
although some may find this derivation2 rather farfetched.
There are, on the other hand, two kinds of injustice—the 3 one, on the part of those who inflict wrong,
the other on the part of those who, when they can, do
not shield from wrong those upon whom it is being
inflicted. For he who, under the influence of anger
or some other passion, wrongfully assaults another
seems, as it were, to be laying violent hands upon a
comrade; but he who does not prevent or oppose
wrong, if he can, is just as guilty of wrong as if he
deserted his parents or his friends or his country.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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