Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

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

Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill. - Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit

Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.

Friendship is not to be sought for its wages, but because its revenue consists entirely in the love which it implies.

Can there be greater foolishness than the respect you pay to people collectively when you despise them individually?

Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.

A mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.

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

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

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

Virtue is increased by the smile of approval; and the love of renown is the greatest incentive to honourable acts.

The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.

Virtue is uniform, conformable to reason, and of unvarying consistency; nothing can be added to it that can make it more than virtue; nothing can be taken from it, and the name of virtue be left.

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.

Old age by nature is rather talkative.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.

Sed nescio quo modo nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosphorum. (There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.)

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

The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.

Rashness is the companion of youth, prudence of old age.

Ignorance of impending evil is far better than a knowledge of its approach.

No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.

True law is right reason in agreement with nature;...it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions... It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely.

They condemn what they do not understand.

It is better to receive than to do injury.

A careful physician . . . before he attempts to administer a remedy to his patient, must investigate not only the malady of the man he wishes to cure, but also his habits when in health, and his physical constitution.

Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another.

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.

The more peculiarly his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

No one has lived a short life who has performed its duties with unblemished character.

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.

If anyone cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of feeling at all. From the enduring wonder of the heavens flows all grace and power. If anyone thinks it is mindless then he himself must be out of his mind.

What is impossible by the nature of things is not confirmed by any law.

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.

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

God's law is 'right reason.' When perfectly understood it is called 'wisdom.' When applied by government in regulating human relations it is called 'justice.

Who can love the man he fears. or by who he thinks he is himself feared?

To live long, live slowly.

To reduce man to the duties of his own city, and to disengage him from duties to the members of other cities, is to break the universal society of the human race.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

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.

There is wickedness in the intention of wickedness, even though it be not perpetrated in the act.

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

In the master there is a servant, in the servant a master.

Our generosity never should exceed our abilities.

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.

I have always been of the opinion that unpopularity earned by doing what is right is not unpopularity at all, but glory.