Cicero Quotes

As thou sowest, so shalt thou reap. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

For there is assuredly nothing dearer to a man than wisdom, and though age takes away all else, it undoubtedly brings us that. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

For walk where we will, we tread upon some story. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friends are proved by adversity. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Anger should be especially kept down in punishing, because he who comes to punishment in wrath will never hold that middle course which lies between the too much and the too little. It is also true that it would be desirable that they who hold the office of Judges should be like the laws, which approach punishment not in a spirit of anger but in one of equity. ~ Johannes Voet

For my own part, I had rather be old only a short time than be old before I really am so. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

For he, indeed, who looks into the face of a friend beholds, as it were, a copy of himself. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Let your desires be ruled by reason. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

No grief is so acute but time ameliorates it. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Memory is the receptacle and sheath of all knowledge ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Victory is by nature insolent and haughty. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

By Hercules! I prefer to err with Plato, whom I know how much you value, than to be right in the company of such men. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Reason should direct, and appetite obey. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

If some lose their whole fortunes, they will drag many more down with them ... believe me that the whole system of credit and finance which is carried on here at Rome in the Forum, is inextricably bound up with the revenues of the Asiatic province. If Those revenues are destroyed, our whole system of credit will come down with a crash. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Within the character of the citizen, lies the welfare of the nation. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

That folly of old age which is called dotage is peculiar to silly old men, not to age itself. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Let flattery, the handmaid of the vices, be far removed . ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sometimes I do what I want to. The rest of the time- I do what I have to. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is a common saying that many pecks of salt must be eaten before the duties of friendship can be discharged.
[Lat., Vulgo dicitur multos modios salis simul edendos esse, ut amicitia munus expletum sit.] ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

No sober person dances. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

You have truly gained the mastery of the very stronghold of philosophy, Mother. For without doubt only for lack of words you did not elaborate on this subject as did Tullius [Cicero], whose words will follow. For in the Hortensius, the book he wrote on the praise and defense of philosophy, he said: 'But see, surely not the philosophers but all given to argument say that those who live just as they wish are happy.' This is definitely false; for to want what is not appropriate is the worst of all miseries. It is not so miserable not to get what you want as to want to get what you ought not. Wickedness of will brings to everyone greater evil than good fortune brings good. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

A library and a garden is all man needs ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Our Catholic church here split into three pieces: (1) the American Catholic Church whose new Rome is Cicero, Illinois; (2) the Dutch schismatics who believe in relevance but not God; (3) the Roman Catholic remnant, a tiny scattered flock with no place to go. The American Catholic Church, which emphasizes property rights and the integrity of neighborhoods, retained the Latin mass and plays The Star-Spangled Banner at the elevation. ~ Walker Percy

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Books are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; companions by night, in traveling, in the country. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

There is no thing which God cannot accomplish. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

In fact the whole passion ordinarily termed love (and heaven help me if I can think of any other term to apply to it) is of such exceeding triviality that I see nothing that I think comparable with it. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is difficult to remember all, and ungracious to omit any. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

We can more easily avenge an injury than requite a kindness; on this account, because there is less difficulty in getting the better of the wicked than in making one's self equal with the good. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

Not to be covetous, is money; not to be a purchaser, is a revenue. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

This is the part of a great man, after he has maturely weighed all circumstances, to punish the guilty, to spare the many, and in every state of fortune not to depart from an upright, virtuous conduct. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the mind is eloquence. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Though laughter is allowable, a horse-laugh is abominable. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The first duty of man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

A guy is on the radio talking about the war.
Speculating.
Speculating.
Speculating.
He says in less than two hours, we shall fight to preserve freedom.
Freedom.
America wants to give another country freedom.
That doesn't sound that bad, or does it. ~ Noah Cicero

Strain every nerve to gain your point. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The illustrious and noble ought to place before them certain rules and regulations, not less for their hours of leisure and relaxation than for those of business. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Man was born for two things
thinking and acting. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by your finger. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The well-known old remark of Cato, who used to wonder how two soothsayers could look one another in the face without laughing. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual goodwill and affection. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

An innocent man, if accused, can be acquitted; a guilty man, unless accused, cannot be condemned. It is, however, more advantageous to absolve an innocent than not to prosecute a guilty man. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

In time of war the laws are silent. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

He was so sad he didn't even know it. He was convinced if he could just make meaning, he would have meaning. Not knowing meaning came from the outside. ~ Noah Cicero

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. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nature has lent us life at interest, like money, and has fixed no day for its payment. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of someday being a commander. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The injuries that befall us unexpectedly are less severe than those which are deliberately anticipated. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

In the conduct of almost every affair slowness and procrastination are hateful ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

How much in love with himself, and that too without a rival! ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The best stuff that Cicero wrote, in the first century in Rome, were the Philippics, a series of speeches that he delivered against Marc Antony, whom he thought was irreparably dismantling the Republic of Rome. Those speeches are powerful because they're not only really pointed but they're thrillingly beautiful - and that's precisely what made them dangerous: the fact that people wanted to read them. ~ John D'Agata

This spirit of humanity breathes in Cicero and Virgil. Hence the veneration paid to the poet of the Aeneid by the fathers and throughout the middle ages. Augustine calls him the noblest of poets, and Dante, "the glory and light of other poets," and "his master," who guided him through the regions of hell and purgatory to the very gates of Paradise. It was believed that in his fourth Eclogue he had prophesied the advent of Christ. This interpretation is erroneous; but "there is in Virgil," says an accomplished scholar,84 "a vein of thought and sentiment more devout, more humane, more akin to the Christian than is to be found in any other ancient poet, whether Greek or Roman. He was a spirit prepared and waiting, though he knew it not, for some better thing to be revealed. ~ Philip Schaff

What is sweeter than lettered ease? ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is observed by Cicero, that men of the greatest and most shining parts are most actuated by ambition. ~ Joseph Addison

Nature herself makes the wise man rich. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

You must therefore love me, myself, and not my circumstances, if we are to be real friends. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

If wisdom be attainable, let us not only win but enjoy it. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The impulse which directs to right conduct, and deters from crime, is not only older than the ages of nations and cities, but coeval with that Divine Being who sees and rules both heaven and earth. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

People always thought if no one believed in God and we were nihilists then people would go around murdering each other. That didn't happen at all, we just bought a lot of things with credit. ~ Noah Cicero

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

A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

In 77 BC, Cicero used the evidence of a client's well-kept ledger to argue in court for his good character and trustworthiness, saying, 'day-books last for a month, ledgers for ever . . . day-books embrace the memory of a moment, ledgers attest the good faith and conscientiousness which ensure a man's reputation for all time'. ~ Jane Gleeson-White

Once, in Thessaly, there was a poet called Simonides. He was commissioned to appear at a banquet, given by a man called Scopas, and recite a lyric in praise of his host. Poets have strange vagaries, and in his lyric Simonides incorporated verses in praise of Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins. Scopas was sulky, and said he would pay only half the fee: 'As for the rest, get it from the Twins.' A little later, a servant came into the hall. He whispered to Simonides; there were two young men outside, asking for him by name. He rose and left the banqueting hall. He looked around for the two young men, but he could see no one. As he turned back, to go and finish his dinner, he heard a terrible noise, of stone splitting and crumbling. He heard the cries of the dying, as the roof of the hall collapsed. Of all the diners, he was the only one left alive. The bodies were so broken and disfigured that the relatives of the dead could not identify them. But Simonides was a remarkable man. Whatever he saw was imprinted on his mind. He led each of the relatives through the ruins; and pointing to the crushed remains, he said, there is your man. In linking the dead to their names, he worked from the seating plan in his head.
It is Cicero who tells us this story. He tells us how, on that day, Simonides invented the art of memory. He remembered the names, the faces, some sour and bloated, some blithe, some bored. He remembered exactly where everyone was sitting, at the moment the roof f ~ Hilary Mantel

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

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing is more becoming in a great man than courtesy and forbearance ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

For no phase of life, whether public or private, whether in business or in the home, whether one is working on what concerns oneself alone or dealing with another, can be without its moral duty; on the discharge of such duties depends all that is morally right, and on their neglect all that is morally wrong in life. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

The First Bond of Society is Marriage. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero