Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes (428 Quotes)

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 antiquity.

To those who are engaged in commercial dealings, justice is indispensable for the conduct of business

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all knowledge.

There is wickedness in the intention of wickedness, even though it be not perpetrated in the art.

I wonder that a soothsayer doesn't laugh whenever he sees another soothsayer.

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary.

How invincible is justice if it be well spoken.

The sinews of war are infinite money.

How long will you abuse our patience, Catiline Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra.

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

Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquillity, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.

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

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

Physicians, when the cause of disease is discovered, consider that the cure is discovered.

To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times.

The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.

That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.

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

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

Wise men are instructed by reason men of less understanding, by experience the most ignorant, by necessity the beasts, by nature.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

The contract they sent over called for a 76 percent price increase.

To know the laws is not to memorize their letter but to grasp their full force and meaning.

Laughter has its source in some kind of meanness or deformity.

Nature abhors annihilation.

We know it's important, and we know the consumer wants bundling, so what we try to do is work with other companies to provide the lowest price for our digital television.

Books 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 companions by night, in traveling, in the country.

No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.

Let the punishment be equal with the offence.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

Other relaxations are peculiar to certain times, places and stages of life, but the study of letters is the nourishment of our youth, and the joy of our old age. They throw an additional splendor on prosperity, and are the resource and consolation of adversity they delight at home, and are no embarrassment abroad in short, they are company to us at night, our fellow travelers on a journey, and attendants in our rural recesses.

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

To live is to think.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.

A sensual and intemperate youth translates into an old worn-out body.

The mansion should not be graced by its master, the master should grace the mansion.

If you wish to remove avarice you must remove its mother, luxury.

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

Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.

War leads to peace.

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

Friends are proved by adversity.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.