109 Quotes & Sayings By Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life. Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious. Marcus Tullius Cicero

My dear Scipio and Laelius. Men, of course, who have no resources in themselves for securing a good and happy life find every age burdensome. But those who look for all happiness from within can never think anything bad which Nature makes inevitable. Marcus Tullius Cicero

When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's [children's] minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind. Marcus Tullius Cicero

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history? Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.) Marcus Tullius Cicero

An unjust peace is better than a just war. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

What an ugly beast is the ape, and how like us. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked. Marcus Tullius Cicero

The life of the dead is set in the memory of the living. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

There is a story that Simonides was dining at the house of a wealthy nobleman named Scopas at Crannon in Thessaly, and chanted a lyric poem which he had composed in honor of his host, in which he followed the custom of the poets by including for decorative purposes a long passage referring to Castor and Pollux; whereupon Scopas with excessive meanness told him he would pay him half the fee agreed on for the poem, and if he liked he might apply for the balance to his sons of Tyndaraus, as they had gone halves in the panegyric. The story runs that a little later a message was brought to Simonides to go outside, as two young men were standing at the door who earnestly requested him to come out; so he rose from his seat and went out, and could not see anybody; but in the interval of his absence the roof of the hall where Scopas was giving the banquet fell in, crushing Scopas himself and his relations underneath the ruins and killing them; and when their friends wanted to bury them but were altogether unable to know them apart as they had been completely crushed, the story goes that Simonides was enabled by his recollection of the place in which each of them had been reclining at table to identify them for separate interment; and that this circumstance suggested to him the discovery of the truth that the best aid to clearness of memory consists in orderly arrangement. He inferred that persons desiring to train this faculty must select localities and form mental images of the facts they wish to remember and store those images in the localities, with the result that the arrangement of the localities will preserve the order of the facts, and the images of the facts will designate the facts themselves, and we shall employ the localities and images respectively as a wax writing tablet and the letters written on it. Marcus Tullius Cicero

I cannot find a faithful message-bearer, " he wrote to his friend, the scholar Atticus. "How few are they who are able to carry a rather weighty letter without lightening it by reading. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

There is also a tradition about Socrates. He liked walking, it is recorded, until a late hour of the evening, and when someone asked him why he did this he said he was trying to work up an appetite for his dinner. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom. Marcus Tullius Cicero

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

There are no snares more dangerous than those which lurk under the guise of duty or the name of relationship. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere.( No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.) Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

Just as apples when unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This ripeness is so delightful to me that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem, as it were, to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last after a long voyage. Marcus Tullius Cicero

We must stand up against old age and make up for its drawbacks by taking pains. We must fight it as we should an illness. We must look after our health, use moderate exercise, take just enough food and drink to recruit, but not to overload, our strength. Nor is it the body alone that must be supported, but the intellect and soul much more. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Two distinctive traits especially identify beyond a doubt a strong and dominant character. One trait is contempt for external circumstances, when one is convinced that men ought to respect, to desire, and to pursue only what is moral and right, that men should be subject to nothing, not to another man, not to some disturbing passion, not to Fortune. The second trait, when your character has the disposition I outlined just now, is to perform the kind of services that are significant and most beneficial; but they should also be services that are a severe challenge, that are filled with ordeals, and that endanger not only your life but also the many comforts that make life attractive. Of these two traits, all the glory, magnificence, and the advantage, too, let us not forget, are in the second, while the drive and the discipline that make men great are in the former. . Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

The sinews of war are infinite money. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Laws are silent in time of war. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

Nature abhors annihilation. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty. Marcus Tullius Cicero

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. Marcus Tullius Cicero

To some extent I liken slavery to death. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Rashness belongs to youth prudence to old age. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

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

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

True nobility is exempt from fear. 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

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

A friend is, as it were, a second self. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Peace is liberty in tranquillity. Marcus Tullius Cicero