The Paradoxa Stoicorum (English: Stoic Paradoxes) is a work by the academic skeptic philosopher Cicero in which he attempts to explain six famous Stoic sayings that appear to go against common understanding: (1) virtue is the sole good; (2) virtue is the sole requisite for happiness; (3) all good deeds are equally virtuous and all bad deeds equally vicious; (4) all fools are mad; (5) only the wise are free, whereas all fools are enslaved; and (6) only the wise are rich.
[2] In the introduction, Cicero praises Brutus' uncle Cato the Younger who was still alive at this date.
[2] Cicero was motivated to write the work in order to re-express Stoic arguments within the language of rhetorical Latin.
Cicero states his intention is to make a version of an original Greek work in a language appropriate for the mode of the Forum.
[3] He defends the paradoxes with popular arguments, sometimes hardly more than a play upon words, and illustrates them with anecdotes from history.
[6] In 1465 Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer printed the work together with Cicero's de Officiis having taken control of the Gutenberg press at Mainz.
[5] The good therefore should be defined exclusively in rational terms and thus the moral life should be ordered according to reason.
[4] Cicero asserts that his own exile was not a hardship since he possessed the correct Stoic wisdom and virtue.
[8] Cicero attacks an unnamed military leader who is unworthy of command because he cannot control his passions and thus is not free.