Cicero Quotes

Mental stains can not be removed by time, nor washed away by any waters. [Lat., Animi labes nec diuturnitate vanescere nec omnibus ullis elui potest.]

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

It is better to receive than to do injury.

Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.

Whatever that be which thinks, understands, wills, and acts, it is something celestial and divine.

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.

Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.

Let a man practice the profession which he best knows.

Kindness is produced by kindness.

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? In heaven's name,Catiline, how long will you abuse ourpatience?

Even the ablest pilots are willing to receive advice from passengers in tempestuous weather.

As the scale of the balance must give way to the weight that presses it down, so the mind must of necessity yield to demonstration.

But in every matter the consensus of opinion among all nations is to be regarded as the law of nature.

When time and need require, we should resist with all our might, and prefer death to slavery and disgrace.

Nothing is so swift as calumny, nothing is more easily propagated, nothing more readily credited, nothing more widely circulated.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

I hear Socrates saying that the best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.

Nothing dries sooner than a tear.

That he who hath the loan of money has not repaid it, and he who has repaid has not the loan; but he who has acknowledged a kindness has it still, and he who has a feeling of it has requited it.

A life of peace, purity and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.

Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion.

Quacks pretend to cure other men's disorders, but fail to find a remedy for their own.

Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth.

We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.

Old age: the crown of life, our play's last act.

Hatred is settled anger.

Reason is the mistress and queen of all things. [Lat., Domina omnium et regina ratio.]

The eyes, like sentinels, hold the highest place in the body. [Lat., Oculi, tanquam, speculatores, altissimum locum obtinent.]

In ancient times music was the foundation of all the sciences. Education was begun with music with the persuasion that nothing could be expected of a man who was ignorant of music.

Religion is the pious worship of God.

To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.

The judgment of posterity is truer, because it is free from envy and malevolence.

We must not say that every mistake is a foolish one.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

I prefer silent prudence to loquacious folly.

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings, Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings: Live so, my Love, that when death shall come, Swan-like and sweet it may waft thee home.

Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.

Pleasure blinds (so to speak) the eyes of the mind, and has no fellowship with virtue.

This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power.

Like associates with like.

Nature has inclined us to love men.