Single Idea 2662

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 1. Virtue Theory / a. Nature of virtue]

Full Idea

Zeno held that not merely the exercise of virtue, as his predecessors held, but the mere state of virtue is in itself a splendid thing, although nobody possesses virtue without continuously exercising it.

Gist of Idea

Zeno saw virtue as a splendid state, not just a source of splendid action

Source

report of Zeno (Citium) (fragments/reports [c.294 BCE]) by M. Tullius Cicero - Academica I.10.38

Book Reference

Cicero: 'De Natura Deorum and Academica (XIX)', ed/tr. Rackham,H. [Harvard Loeb 1933], p.447