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
- History of the Peloponnesian WarAthens · -400explains
- CyropaediaAthens · -354explains
- MemorabiliaAthens · -354explains
- AgesilausAthens · -354explains
- EconomicsAthens · -354explains
- On the False EmbassyAthens · -343explains
- PanathenaicusAthens · -339explains
- RhetoricChalcis · -335explains
- On the CrownAthens · -330explains
- Nicomachean EthicsChalcis · -322explains
- Eudemian EthicsChalcis · -322explains
- Against LeptinesAthens · -322explains
- Magna MoraliaChalcis · -322explains
- HistoriesMegalopolis · -118explains
- De InventioneFormiae · -84explains
- Pro P. QuinctioFormiae · -81explains
- Pro S. Roscio AmerinoFormiae · -80explains
- In C. VerremFormiae · -70explains
- Pro A. CluentioFormiae · -66explains
- Pro P. SullaFormiae · -62explains
- Pro L. FlaccoFormiae · -59explains
- On OratoryFormiae · -55explains
- PhilippicaeFormiae · -44explains
- de Finibus Bonorum et MalorumFormiae · -43explains
- Tusculanae DisputationesFormiae · -43explains
- De AmicitiaFormiae · -43explains
- Partitiones OratoriaeFormiae · -43explains
- Ab urbe conditaPadua · -27explains
- Institutio OratoriaRome · 95explains
- Apophthegmata LaconicaChaeronea · 120explains
- Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscaturChaeronea · 120explains
- Noctes AtticaeRome · 180explains
- Vitae philosophorum— · 240explains
- Epistulae—explains
- Historia RomanaRomeexplains
- Fragmenta MoraliaAthensexplains
- De Beneficiis—explains
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
- De Specialibus Legibus (lib. i‑iv)—explains
- De Vita Beata—explains
Key passages(20)
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
In Aristotelis artem rhetoricam commentarium · Anonymi in Aristotelis Artem Rhetoricam
Partitiones Oratoriae · Cicero
Partitiones Oratoriae · Cicero
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
Tusculanae Disputationes · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero
de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum · Cicero