Marcus tullius cicero quotes

Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.

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

If we lose affection and kindliness from our life: we lose all that gives it charm.

For out of such an ungoverned populace one is usually chosen as a leader, someone bold and unscrupulous who curries favor with the people by giving them other men's property. To such a man the protection of public office is given, and continually renewed. He emerges as a tyrant over the very people who raised him to power.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum. (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.)

It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.

A man would have no pleasures in discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself, unless he had a partner to whom he might communicate his joys.

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.

A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.

Wisdom often exists under a shabby coat.

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

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.

If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings, and speak my words.

I remember the very thing that I do not wish to; I cannot forget the things I wish to forget.

A s laws multiply, injustice increases.

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

The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt.

Before beginning, plan carefully.

Morals today are corrupted by our worship of riches.

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.

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

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

More laws, less justice.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

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?

A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

There are two ways to resolve conflicts, through violence or through negotiation. Violence is for wild beasts, negotiation is for human beings.

If we are forced, at every hour, to watch or listen to horrible events, this constant stream of ghastly impressions will deprive even the most delicate among us of all respect for humanity.

Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)

The Jews belong to a dark and repulsive force. One knows how numerous this clique is, how they stick together and what power they exercise through their unions. They are a nation of rascals and deceivers.

Those who do not know history will forever remain children

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.

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

Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.

Sound conviction should influence us rather than public opinion.

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.

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

We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history.

They condemn what they do not understand.

A home without books is a body without soul.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

The beginnings of all things are small.

Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.

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

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

Man is his own worst enemy. [Lat., Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse.]

Anyone may fairly seek his own advantage, but no one has a right to do so at another's expense.

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.

Enjoy the blessing of strength while you have it and do not bewail it when it is gone, unless, forsooth, you believe that youth must lament the loss of infancy, or early manhood the passing of youth. Life's race-course is fixed; Nature has only a single path and that path is run but once, and to each stage of existence has been allotted its own appropriate quality; so that the weakness of childhood, the impetuosity of youth, the seriousness of middle life, the maturity of old age.. each bears some of Nature's fruit, which must be garnered in its own season.

Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.

For surely to be wise is the most desirable thing in all the world.

There is no one who can give you wiser advice than you can give yourself: you will never make a slip, if you listen to your own heart.

They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever.

There exists a law, not written down anywhere but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.

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

Life without learning is death.

Most happy is he who is entirely self-reliant, and who centers all his requirements in himself alone.

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

To give counsel, as well as to take it, is a feature of true friendship.

Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.'

If our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

People don't know the value of what they have until it is gone: Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.... Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude. Don't wait till freedom is gone before you enjoy, value, support, protect and make the most of it!

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

The first duty of man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.

Probability is the very guide of life.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.

Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquility and peace.

The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.

Nothing troubles you for which you do not yearn.

As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

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

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?

Man was born for two things--thinking and acting.

Man must suffer to be wise.

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.

We should be careful that our benevolence does not exceed our means.

Studies are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; they are companions by night, and in travel, and in the country.

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

They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race.

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

He who suffers, remembers.

Friends, though absent, are still present.

What society does to its children, so will its children do to society.

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?

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

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.

No one dances sober, unless he is insane.

Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that very liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the "general welfare of the people." Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by lusting tyrants to make us bondsmen.

We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.

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

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.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

Long life is denied us; therefore let us do something to show that we have lived.

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

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

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.

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

Nothing is so secure as that money will not defeat it.

More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind.

Virtue is its own reward.

In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.

The life of the dead is placed on the memories of the living. The love you gave in life keeps people alive beyond their time. Anyone who was given love will always live on in another's heart.

We should be as careful of our words as of our actions.

Please go on, make your threats. I don't like to submit to mere implication.

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

When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.

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.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

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

Through doubt we arrive at the truth.