Cicero Quotes

The whole of virtue consists in its practice.

One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees.

Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue, not a companion in vice.

No wise man has called a change of opinion in constancy.

There are two ways to resolve conflicts, through violence or through negotiation. Violence is for wild beasts, negotiation is for human beings.

It is difficult to tell how much men's minds are conciliated by a kind manner and gentle speech.

Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defence can actually be just.

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal.

Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself; you will never err if you listen to your own suggestions.

More law, less justice.

Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

There is no grief which time does not lessen and soften.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

It is not easy to distinguish between true and false affection, unless there occur one of those crises in which, as gold is tried by fire, so a faithful friendship may be tested by danger.

Enmity is anger watching the opportunity for revenge.

If a man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

No sane man will dance.

I follow nature as the surest guide, and resign myself with implicit obedience to her sacred ordinances.

What is permissible is not always honorable.

He who acknowledges a kindness has it still, and he who has a grateful sense of it has requited it.

Morals today are corrupted by our worship of riches.

Thus nature has no love for solitude, and always leans, as it were, on some support; and the sweetest support is found in the most intimate friendship.

The spirit is the true self.

There is no mortal whom pain and disease do not reach.

We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.

We make allowance for necessity.

In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men.

For even if the allotted space of life be short, it is long enough in which to live honorably and well.

The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

Nothing is so secure as that money will not defeat it.

No one sees what is before his feet: we all gaze at the stars. [Lat., Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat: coeli scrutantur plagas.]

True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can any feigned thing be lasting.

We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.

He cannot be strict in judging, who does not wish others to be strict judges of himself.

Ability without honor is useless.

Probability is the very guide of life.

Friendship is given us by nature, not to favor vice, but to aid virtue.

It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.

Great is the power, great is the authority of a senate that is unanimous in its opinions.

I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

The master sometimes serves, and the servant sometimes is master.

The whole life of a philosopher is the meditation of his death.

Friends are proved by adversity.

Without your knowledge, the eyes and ears of many will see and watch you, as they have done already.

Justice extorts no reward, no kind of price; she is sought, therefore, for her own sake.

Rashness belongs to youth; prudence to old age.