To ask if anyone can advise me on this (DESPERATE) literary reference....

[TedItty]

...

I read in a short story a quote from (allegedly) Cicero about "men who planted orchards knowing they would not reap the benefits from them"

Can any classicists confirm if this in fact Cicero, and, if so, from where it is? Google just takes me back to the original story.

It's in On The Character in the Three Dialogues. Hold on a minute...

It's from the Bible, isn't it? Hold on a second.

Sorry, can't be if it's attributed to Cicero.

Here: Cicero On Oratory

AWESOME

I love mumsnet!

Oh, I thought it referred to this passage from "Cato Maior de Senectute":
Nor indeed would a farmer, however old, hesitate to answer any one who asked him for whom he was planting: “For the immortal gods, whose will it was that I should not merely receive these things from my ancestors, but should also hand them on to the next generation.”
www.bartleby.com/9/2/1.html

Any idea where it is in the text MrsPiggie, I'm scrolling through.

It's paragraph 15, about half way down - the magic of Ctrl + F!

Oh is that what it is? I thought it was the discussion of the old man planting trees for his son because he won't get to see them himself.

some clever dudes here