Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Life without learning is death.

The life of the dead consists in the recollection cherished of them by the living.

There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.

Certain signs are the forerunners of certain events.

There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it.

Saving the virtues includes all other advantages

The science of love is the philosophy of the heart

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

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

I cheerfully quit from life as if it were an inn, not a home; for Nature has given us a hostelry in which to sojourn, not to abide.

I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature.

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.

Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to continue always a child.

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

What is there that is illustrious that is not also attended by labor?

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time.

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

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

There is no place more delightful than home.

All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.

A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.

Aristoteles quidem ait: 'Omnes ingeniosos melancholicos esse.' Aristotle says that all men of genius are melancholy.

Slowly and imperceptibly old age comes creeping on.

When confronted by a hungry wolf, it is unwise to goad the beast, as Cato would have us do. But it is equally unwise to imagine the snarling animal a friend and offer your hand, as Pompey does." "Perhaps you would have us climb a tree!

Within the character of the citizen, lies the welfare of the nation.

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

Study carefully, the character of the one you recommend, lest their misconduct bring you shame.

Religion is the pious worship of God.

As you have sown so shall you reap.

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

"What greater gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?"

It is certain that memory contains not only philosophy, but all the arts and all that appertain to the use of life.

In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people.

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

A thankful heart is the greatest virtue.

The following passage is one of those cited by Copernicus himself in his preface to De Revolutionibus: "The Syracusan Hicetas, as Theophrastus asserts, holds the view that the heaven, sun, moon, stars, and in short all of the things on high are stationary, and that nothing in the world is in motion except the earth, which by revolving and twisting round its axis with extreme velocity produces all the same results as would be produced if the earth were stationary and the heaven in motion. . . ."

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

For while we are enclosed in these confinements of the body, we perform as a kind of duty the heavy task of necessity; for the soul from heaven has been cast down from its dwelling on high and sunk, as it were, into the earth, a place just the opposite to godlike nature and eternity. But I believe that the immortal gods have sown souls in human bodies so there might exist beings to guard the world and after contemplating the order of heaven, might imitate it by their moderation and steadfastness in life.

It is of no avail to know what is about to happen; for it is a sad thing to be grieved when grief can do no good.

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.

Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.

The works of nature must all be accounted good.

In a discussion of this kind our interest should be centered not on the weight of the authority but on the weight of the argument. Indeed the authority of those who set out to teach is often an impediment to those who wish to learn. They cease to use their own judgment and regard as gospel whatever is put forward by their chosen teacher.

Not in opinion but in nature is law founded.

When I consider the wonderful activity of the mind, so great a memory of what is past, and such a capacity of penetrating into the future: when I behold such a number of arts and sciences, and such a multitude of discoveries hence arising,--I believe and am firmly persuaded that a nature which contains so many things within itself cannot be mortal.

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