Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

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

Hatred is settled anger.

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

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In honorable dealing you should consider what you intended, not what you said or thought.

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

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

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

No obligation to do the impossible is binding.

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

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

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

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

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.

Thrift is of great revenue.

Of all nature’s gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

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

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.

Empire and liberty.

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.

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.

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

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

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

Like associates with like.

Nature abhors annihilation.

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

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

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.

In time of war the laws are silent.

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

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

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.

Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.

We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.

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

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

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

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

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.

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

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

A letter does not blush.

In everything, satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.

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

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

The sinews of war are infinite money.

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

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

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

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

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