Cato the Younger
95 – 46 BCE · Rome
Roman senator, great-grandson of Cato the Censor, and the most famous Stoic exemplar of the late Republic. He wrote nothing; his philosophy was his conduct — incorruptible, austere, openly opposed to Caesar. After Caesar's victory at Thapsus he took his own life at Utica rather than live under one-man rule. Seneca and later Stoics held him up as proof that Stoic virtue was livable, not merely teachable.
Key works
- No writings — Known only through reports — Plutarch's Life of Cato Minor, Cicero, and Seneca.
Selected passages
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I would rather men should ask why no statue has been erected in my honour, than why one has.
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I begin to be the friend of myself; that man is well prepared for friendship who can become his own friend.
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An honest man is seldom a vagrant.
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Cato did not survive freedom, nor did freedom survive Cato.
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I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.
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The wise man is neither raised up by prosperity nor cast down by adversity. He is the same in all fortunes, because he has virtue.
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I would not be given the opportunity to do wrong for all the gold in the world. For the loss of virtue is greater than the loss of wealth.
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Cato, when he was asked why he entered politics, answered, 'I am not a man who can live for himself alone.'
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The good man is not he who has no fortune, but he whom no fortune can make bad. Cato was such a man, for he was good in prosperity and in adversity.
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He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.