Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion.

Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.

Quacks pretend to cure other men's disorders, but fail to find a remedy for their own.

But in every matter the consensus of opinion among all nations is to be regarded as the law of nature.

I hear Socrates saying that the best seasoning for food is hunger; for drink, thirst.

Let our friends perish, provided that our enemies fall at the same time.

Politeness and an affable address are our best introduction.

There is in superstition a senseless fear of God; religion consists in the pious worship of Him.

That he who hath the loan of money has not repaid it, and he who has repaid has not the loan; but he who has acknowledged a kindness has it still, and he who has a feeling of it has requited it.

Mental stains can not be removed by time, nor washed away by any waters. [Lat., Animi labes nec diuturnitate vanescere nec omnibus ullis elui potest.]

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

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

We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.

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

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

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

True nobility is exempt from fear.

To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.

Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.

He is sometimes slave who should be master; and sometimes master who should be slave.

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

Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.

Pleasure blinds (so to speak) the eyes of the mind, and has no fellowship with virtue.

As I breathe, I hope.

I do not understand what the man who is happy wants in order to be happier.

I prefer silent prudence to loquacious folly.

The spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by your finger.

Like associates with like.

Let the punishment be equal with the offence. [Lat., Noxiae poena par esto.]

Let flattery, the handmaid of the vices, be far removed .

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

To err is human, but to persevere in error is only the act of a fool.

A war is never undertaken by the ideal state, except in defense of its honor or its safety.

To freemen, threats are impotent.

Nature has lent us life at interest, like money, and has fixed no day for its payment.

What fervent love of herself would Virtue excite if she could be seen!

A perverse temper and fretful disposition will make any state of life whatsoever unhappy.

It is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity.

Unraveling the web of Penelope.

They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.

Reason is the mistress and queen of all things. [Lat., Domina omnium et regina ratio.]

This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power.

Death darkens his eyes, and unplumes his wings, Yet the sweetest song is the last he sings: Live so, my Love, that when death shall come, Swan-like and sweet it may waft thee home.

The first bond of society is marriage.

There is no duty more indispensible than that of returning a kindness.

Dum Spiro, spero- As long as I breathe, I hope.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

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

It is a common saying that many pecks of salt must be eaten before the duties of friendship can be discharged.

The eyes, like sentinels, hold the highest place in the body. [Lat., Oculi, tanquam, speculatores, altissimum locum obtinent.]