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CICERO, Marcus Tullius Quotes
(106-43 B.C), Roman orator
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.
That which is called dotage, is not the weak point of all old men, but only of such as are distinguished by their levity and weakness.
The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.
Reason should direct, and appetite ebey.
The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he comes down to human affairs.
Avarice, 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?
What is becoming in behavior is honorable, and what is honorable is becoming.
Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.
It is better for a young man to blush, than to turn pale.
No man can be brave who considers pain the greatest evil of life; or temperate, who regards pleasure as the highest good.
Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
What gift has Providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?
Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another.
Cultivation to the mind, is as necessary as food to the body.
We should never so entirely avoid danger as to appear irresolute and cowardly; but, at the same time, we should avoid unnecessarily exposing ourselves to danger, than which nothing can be more foolish.
Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.
The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.
A perverse and fretful disposition makes any state of life unhappy.
There is not a moment without some duty.
Not to be covetous, is money; not to be a purchaser, is a revenue.
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence, and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls.
Be a pattern to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is infected by the licentious passions and vices of great men, so it is likewise reformed by their moderation.
All things that are pernicious in their progress must be evil in their birth, for no sooner is the government of reason thrown off, than they rush forward to their own accord; weakness takes a pleasure to indulge itself; and having imperceptibly launched out into the main ocean, can find no place where to stop.
Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity.— Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
Nothing is more intolerable than a prosperous fool; and hence we see men who, at one time, were affable and agreeable, completely changed by prosperity, despising old friends and clinging to new.
There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence, and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls.
True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.
There is something in the nature of things which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannpt effect, and certainly that which produces this must be better than man. What can this be but God?
In nothing do men approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men.
The administration of government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.
Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.
It is graceful in a man to think and speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth.
He who acknowledges a kindness has it still, and he who has a grateful sense of it has requited it.
No grief is so acute but that time ameliorates it.
The greatest incitement to guilt is the hope of sinning with impunity.
Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child.—If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
My precept to all who build, is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.
I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide; for the man is efficiently destroyed, though the appetite of the brute may survive.
As if anything were so common as ignorance! The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.
When I consider the wonderful activity of the mind, so great a memory of what is past, and such a capacity of penetrating into the future; when I behold such a number of arts and sciences, and such a multitude of discoveries thence arising, I believe and am firmly persuaded that a nature which contains so many things within itself cannot but be immortal.
He is guilty of impertinence who considers not the circumstances of time, or engrosses the conversation, or makes himself the subject of his discourse, or pays no regard to the company he is in.
The way to avoid the imputation of impudence is, not to be ashamed of what we do, but never to do what we ought to be ashamed of.
It is a shameful thing to be weary of inquiry when what we search for is excellent.
Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.
The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds, by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
A knowledge of the laws of our country is an highly useful, and I had almost said essential part of liberal and polite education.
As the laws are above magistrates, so are the magistrates above the people: and it may truly be said, that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law a silent magistrate.
True law is right reason conformably to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil.
Laws are silent in the midst of arms.
Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving as an ornament to riches.
The office of liberality consists in giving with judgment.
The study of literature nourishes youth, entertains old age, adorns prosperity, solaces adversity, is delightful at home, and unobtrusive abroad.
Other relaxations are peculiar to certain times, places, and stages of life, but the study of letters is the nourishment of our youth, and the joy of our old age. They throw an additional splendor on prosperity, and are the resource and consolation of adversity; they delight at home, and are no embarrassment abroad; in short, they are company to us at night, our fellow travelers on a journey, and attendants in our rural recesses.
A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.
Memory is the receptacle and sheath of all knowledge.
All great men are in some degree inspired.
Whatever that be which thinks, understands, wills, and acts, it is something celestial and divine.
Any man may make a mistake, but none but a fool will continue in it.
The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
To live long it is necessary to live slowly.
I follow nature as the surest guide, and resign myself, with implicit obedience, to her sacred ordinances.
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.
Old age has been charged with being insensible to pleasure and to the enjoyments arising from the gratification of the senses—a most blessed and heavenly effect, truly, if it eases us of what in youth was the sorest plague of life.
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
It is not only arrogant, but profligate, for a man to disregard the world's opinion of himself.
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
He is the eloquent man who can treat subjects of an humble nature with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.
Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theatre for virtue is conscience.
He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die.
Philosophy, if rightly defined, is nothing but the love of wisdom.
It is not the place that maketh the person, but the person that maketh the place honorable.
We are all excited by the love of praise, and it is the noblest spirits that feel it most.
True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can any feigned thing be lasting.
Rashness is the characteristic of ardent youth, and prudence that of mellowed age.
Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts by nature.
Think not that guilt requires the burning torches of the furies to agitate and torment it.—Frauds, crimes, remembrances of the past and terrors of the future, these are the domestic furies that are ever present to the minds of the impious.
The precept, "Know yourself," was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.
A youth of sensuality and intemperance delivers over a worn-out body to old age.
There is nothing which wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing which is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing dispersed more widely.
Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, it is something celestial and divine, and on that account must necessarily be eternal.
There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
Superstition is a senseless fear of God; religion the intelligent and pious worship of the deity.
Taxes are the sinews of the state.
A perverse temper, and a discontented, fretful disposition, wherever they prevail, render any state of life unhappy.
It is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue, when we are led to the performance of duty by pleasure as its recompense.
There is wickedness in the intention of wickedness, even though it be not perpetrated in the act.
It is a man's own dishonesty, his crimes, his wickedness, and barefaced assurance, that takes away from him soundness of mind; these are the furies, these the flames and firebrands, of the wicked.
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.
It is a truth but too well known, that rashness attends youth, as prudence does old age.
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