Cicero Quotes

Who doesn't know that the first law of history is not to dare to say anything false, and the second is not to refrain from saying anything true?

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

For to me every sort of peace with the citizens seemed to be of more service than civil war.

Friendship makes prosperity brighter, while it lightens adversity by sharing its griefs and anxieties. [Lat., Secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia, et adversas partiens communicansque leviores.]

That which is usually called dotage is not the weak point of all old men, but only of such as are distinguished by their levity.

In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honor, command, power, and glory.

The habit of arguing in support of atheism, whether it be done from conviction or in pretense, is a wicked and impious practice.

What is dishonestly got vanishes in profligacy.

To disregard what the world thinks of us is not only arrogant but utterly shameless. [Lat., Negligere quid de se quisque sentiat, non solum arrogantis est, sed etiam omnino dissoluti.]

Philosophy is true mother of the arts [of science].

Nothing is more praiseworthy, nothing more suited to a great and illustrious man than placability and a merciful disposition.

Victory is by nature insolent and haughty.

Care must be taken that the punishment does not exceed the offence.

What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

If a man could mount to Heaven and survey the mighty universe, his admiration of its beauties would be much diminished unless he had someone to share in his pleasure.

Frugality includes all the other virtues.

Because all the sick do not recover, therefore medicine is not an art.

Rashness attends youth, as prudence does old age.

Friendship is infinitely better than kindness.

Guilt is present in the very hesitation, even though the deed be not committed.

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat. [Lat., Esse oportet ut vivas, non vivere ut edas.]

The freedom of poetic license.

The searching-out and thorough investigation of truth ought to be the primary study of man.

He removes the greatest ornament of friendship who takes away from it respect.

Not to be avaricious is money; not to be fond of buying is a revenue; but to be content with our own is the greatest and most certain wealth of all.

In our amusements a certain limit is to be placed that we may not devote ourselves to a life of pleasure and thence fall into immorality.

Our country is wherever we are well off. [Lat., Patria est, ubicunque est bene.]

The foundation of justice is good faith.

The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

No well-informed person has declared a change of opinion to be inconstancy.

Of all the rewards of virtue, . . . the most splendid is fame, for it is fame alone that can offer us the memory of posterity.

Justice renders to every one his due.

To-morrow will give some food for thought.

No sensible man ever imputes inconsistency to another for changing his minds.

They who dare to ask anything of a friend, by their very request seem to imply that they would do anything for the sake of that friend.

Every generous action loves the public view; yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

Taxes are the sinews of the state.

Excessive liberty leads both nations and individuals into excessive slavery. [Lat., Nimia libertas et populis et privatis in nimiam servitutem cadit.]

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.

The aim of justice is to give everyone his due.

All things are full of God.

I am much beholden to old age, which has increased my eagerness for conversation in proportion as it has lessened my appetites of hunger and thirst.

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.

A community is like the ones who govern it.

Fewer possess virtue, than those who wish us to believe that they possess it.

The gardener plants trees, not one berry of which he will ever see: and shall not a public man plant laws, institutions, government, in short, under the same conditions?

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.