Famous Quotes By Marcus Tullius Cicero

 

1. A friend is, as it were, a second self.
2. A home without books is a body without soul.
3. A man of courage is also full of faith.
4. According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.
5. Advice in old age is foolish for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.
6. An unjust peace is better than a just war.
7. As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.
8. Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
9. Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
10. Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.
11. Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.
12. Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.
13. Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.
14. Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.
15. Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.
16. Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
17. Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
18. Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
19. Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.
20. Hatred is inveterate anger.
21. Hatred is settled anger.
22. I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
23. I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.
24. I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
25. If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.
26. If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
27. If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
28. If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
29. In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.
30. In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.
31. In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.
32. In time of war the laws are silent.
33. It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
34. It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
35. It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.
36. It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.
37. Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.Justice consists in doing no injury to men decency in giving them no offense.
38. Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
39. Laws are silent in time of war.
40. Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.
41. Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.
42. Live as brave men and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.
43. Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.
44. Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
45. Nature abhors annihilation.
46. Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.
47. Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.
48. No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
49. Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.
50. Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.
51. Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
52. Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.
53. Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?
54. Old age: the crown of life, our play's last act.
55. Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.
56. Peace is liberty in tranquillity.
57. People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.
58. Rashness belongs to youth prudence to old age.
59. Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.
60. Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.
61. So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.
62. That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.
63. The best interpreter of the law is custom.
64. The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.
65. The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.
66. The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
67. The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.
68. The more laws, the less justice.
69. The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.
70. The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
71. The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.
72. The sinews of war are infinite money.
73. The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.
74. The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
75. There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
76. This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.
77. Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.
78. Thrift is of great revenue.
79. Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
80. To some extent I liken slavery to death.
81. True nobility is exempt from fear.
82. Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.
83. We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.
84. We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.
85. What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.
86. What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
87. While there's life, there's hope.