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greek-ethicsfeatured in 30 works

The Honorable

The morally fine and noble — what is right because it is right, prized above mere advantage.

The honestum (Latin for the Greek to kalon, 'the fine' or 'the noble') is the morally beautiful — action chosen for its own intrinsic worth rather than for profit or pleasure. Central to Greek ethics, it became a defining theme of Cicero's De Officiis (44 BCE), which famously argues that the honorable (honestum) and the useful (utile) never truly conflict, since nothing genuinely advantageous can be base. That contrast shaped centuries of Roman and Christian moral reflection.

How it traveled

  1. History of the Peloponnesian War
    Athens · -400
    explains
  2. Symposium
    Athens · -385
    explains
  3. Republic
    Athens · -375
    explains
  4. Archidamus
    Athens · -366
    explains
  5. Cyropaedia
    Athens · -354
    explains
  6. Memorabilia
    Athens · -354
    explains
  7. Agesilaus
    Athens · -354
    explains
  8. Economics
    Athens · -354
    explains
  9. Anabasis
    Athens · -354
    explains
  10. Hiero
    Athens · -354
    explains
  11. Hellenica
    Athens · -354
    explains
  12. Laws
    Athens · -348
    explains
  13. Gorgias
    Athens · -348
    explains
  14. Greater Hippias
    Athens · -348
    explains
  15. Alcibiades 1
    Athens · -348
    explains
  16. Against Timarchus
    Athens · -346
    explains
  17. On the False Embassy
    Athens · -343
    explains
  18. Panathenaicus
    Athens · -339
    explains
  19. Antidosis
    Athens · -338
    explains
  20. The Funeral Speech
    Athens · -338
    explains
  21. Nicocles or the Cyprians
    Athens · -338
    explains
  22. Rhetoric
    Chalcis · -335
    explains
  23. On the Crown
    Athens · -330
    explains
  24. Against Ctesiphon
    Athens · -330
    explains
  25. Nicomachean Ethics
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  26. Eudemian Ethics
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  27. Against Leptines
    Athens · -322
    explains
  28. Magna Moralia
    Chalcis · -322
    explains
  29. Letters
    Athens · -322
    explains
  30. Histories
    Megalopolis · -118
    explains

Key passages(20)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Tusculanae Disputationes 5.45↗explains

Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero

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Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam, In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium 1.9↗explains

In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam

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Chrysippus, Fragmenta Moralia 129↗explains

Fragmenta Moralia · Chrysippus

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Chrysippus, Fragmenta Moralia 21↗explains

Fragmenta Moralia · Chrysippus

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Chrysippus, Fragmenta Moralia 38↗explains

Fragmenta Moralia · Chrysippus

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Chrysippus, Fragmenta Moralia 43↗explains

Fragmenta Moralia · Chrysippus

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Inventione 2.159↗explains

De Inventione · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De Inventione 2.166↗explains

De Inventione · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Partitiones Oratoriae 66↗explains

Partitiones Oratoriae · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Partitiones Oratoriae 87↗explains

Partitiones Oratoriae · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Tusculanae Disputationes 2.46↗explains

Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Tusculanae Disputationes 5.44↗explains

Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.45↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.47↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.48↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.49↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 2.50↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 3.11↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 3.38↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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Cicero, Marcus Tullius, de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum 3.39↗explains

de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero

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