Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

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

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

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

The proof of a well-trained mind is that it rejoices in which is good and grieves at the opposite.

Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.

The popular breeze - Aura popularis

Let reason govern desire.

It is the stain and disgrace of the age to envy virtue, and to be anxious to crush the very flower of dignity.

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

The chief recommendation is modesty, then dutiful conduct toward parents, then affection for kindred.

Plato divinely calls pleasure the bait of evil, inasmuch as men are caught by it as fish by a hook.

Nothing is so great an adversary to those who make it their business to please as expectation.

Always the same thing.

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

Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.

To be endowed with strength by nature, to be actuated by the powers of the mind, and to have a certain spirit almost divine infused into you.

Everyone cleaves to the doctrine he has happened upon, as to a rock against which he has been thrown by tempest.

Exile is terrible to those who have, as it were, a circumscribed habitation; but not to those who look upon the whole globe but as one city.

The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish.

He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men.

There is nothing better fitted to delight the reader than change of circumstances and varieties of fortune.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

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.

All the arts, which have a tendency to raise man in the scale of being, have a certain common band of union, and are connected, if I may be allowed to say so, by blood-relationship with one another.

Can any one find in what condition his body will be, I do not say a year hence, but this evening?

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

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

It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.

What an ugly beast the ape, and how like us.

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.

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

Leisure with dignity.

For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than #‎ agriculture

There is no more sure tie between friends than when they are united in their objects and wishes.

The hours pass and the days and the months and the years, and the past time never returns.

No one sees what is before his feet: they scan the tracks of heaven.

It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house! alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one.

The dutifulness of children is the foundation of all virtues.

Death approaches, which is always impending like the stone over Tantalus: then comes superstition with which he who is imbued can never have peace of mind.

It is a great proof of talents to be able to recall the mind from the senses, and to separate thought from habit.

No one dies too soon who has finished the course of perfect virtue.

Let war be so carried on that no other object may seem to be sought but the acquisition of peace. [Lat., Bellum autem ita suscipiatur, ut nihil aliud, nisi pax, quaesita videatur.]

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquities.

There is no fortune so strong that money cannot take it.

It is a shameful thing to be weary of inquiry when what we search for is excellent.

He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.

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.

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.

A man does not wonder at what he sees frequently, even though he be ignorant of the reason. If anything happens which he has not seen before, he calls it a prodigy.