Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and ...
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Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect ...
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A room without books is like a body without a soul.

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

A letter does not blush.

A home without books is a body without soul.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.

A man of courage is also full of faith.

Ability without honor is useless.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured, if severe, it will without doubt be brief.

Advice 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.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

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.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Before beginning, plan carefully.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

Empire and liberty.

For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Hatred is settled anger.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

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

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

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

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

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.

I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

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.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains, if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

In everything, satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

In time of war the laws are silent.

It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men, decency in giving them no offense.

Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

Laws are silent in time of war.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Like associates with like.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

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

Nature abhors annihilation.

More law, less justice.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.

No obligation to do the impossible is binding.

Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.

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

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

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

No sane man will dance.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

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 so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

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

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

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.

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

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

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.

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.

Rashness belongs to youth, prudence to old age.

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

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.

The eyes like sentinel occupy the highest place in the body.

The enemy is within the gates, it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.

The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

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

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

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

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.

The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

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

The sinews of war are infinite money.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.

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

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

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

Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.

Thrift is of great revenue.

True glory takes root, and even spreads, all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground, nor can any counterfeit last long.

To live is to think.

To know the laws is not to memorize their letter but to grasp their full force and meaning.

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

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.

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

What is permissible is not always honorable.

What gift has providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?

What an ugly beast the ape, and how like us.

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?

What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.

While there's life, there's hope.

When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.