Cicero Quotes

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

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.

No obligation to do the impossible is binding.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

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.

Calamus fortior gladio.

Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

Apollo, sacred guard of earth's true core, Whence first came frenzied, wild prophetic word.

It is not a virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue, when we are led to the performance of duty by pleasure as its recompense.

For just as some women are said to be handsome though without adornment, so this subtle manner of speech, though lacking in artificial graces, delights us.

Nor do I regret that I have lived, since I have so lived that I think I was not born in vain, and I quit life as if it were an inn, not a home.

There is, I know not how, 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.

The nearer I approach death the more I feel like one who is in sight of land at last and is about to anchor in one's home port after a long voyage.

I cannot find a faithful message-bearer," he wrote to his friend, the scholar Atticus. "How few are they who are able to carry a rather weighty letter without lightening it by reading.

How great an evil do you see that may have been announced by you against the Republic? - Videtis quantum scelus contra rem publicam vobis nuntiatum sit?

For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a preeminently great man than courtesy and forbearance.

It is difficult to remember all, and ungracious to omit any.

All things tend to corrupt perverted minds.

There has never been a poet or orator who thought another better than himself.

A true friend is a sort of second self.

The remembrance of past misery is sweet.

Let the soldier yield to the civilian.

Thrift is a great revenue.

For many wish not so much to be, as to seem to be, endowed with real virtue.

If wisdom be attainable, let us not only win but enjoy it.

I am a Roman citizen.

We must be ever on the search for some persons whom we shall love and who will love us in return. If good will and affection are taken away, every joy is taken from life.

Nulla (enim) res tantum ad dicendum proficit, quantum scriptio Nothing so much assists learning as writing down what we wish to remember.

Nothing is difficult in the eyes of a lover.

Our liberality should not exceed our ability.

Pleasant is the recollection of dangers past.

Summer lasts not for ever; seasons succeed each other.

Time puts an end to speculation in opinions, and confirms the laws of nature.

Virtue is increased by the smile of approval; and the love of renown is the greatest incentive to honourable acts.

Who can love the man he fears. or by who he thinks he is himself feared?

The man who is always fortunate cannot easily have a great reverence for virtue.

Oh, how great is the power of truth! which of its own power can easily defend itself against all the ingenuity and cunning and wisdom of men, and against the treacherous plots of all the world.

The law is silent during war. [Lat., Silent leges inter arma.]

To remain ignorant of history is to remain forever a child

There is no being of any race who, if he finds the proper guide, cannot attain to virtue.

...the counsels of the Divine Mind had some glimpse of truth when they said that men are born in order to suffer the penalty for sins committed in a former life.

Anyone who has got a book collection/library and a garden wants for nothing.

In times of war, the law falls silent.

Little by little old age renders the body less powerful.

Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within.

Philosophy is the true mother of science.

There is nothing which wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing disbursed more widely.

Nothing is too absurd to be said by some of the philosophers.

Saving the virtues includes all other advantages

What the object of senile avarice may be I cannot conceive. For can there be anything more absurd than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?