Top 100 Marcus Tullius Quotes
#3. For as I like a man in whom there is something of the old, so I like a man in whom there is something of the young; and he who follows this maxim, in body will possibly be an old man but he will never be an old man in mind.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#6. It is difficult to persuade mankind that the love of virtue is the love of themselves.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#8. No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#9. 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.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#10. The counsels of the Divine Mind had some glimpse of truth when they said that men are born in order to suffer the penalty for sins committed in a former life.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#14. 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
#15. Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#17. There is no quality I would rather have, and be thought to have, than gratitude. For it is not only the greatest virtue, but is the mother of all the rest.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#18. That is probable which for the most part usually comes to pass, or which is a part of the ordinary beliefs of mankind.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#24. There is nothing better fitted to delight the reader than change of circumstances and varieties of fortune.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#27. There is a difference between justice and consideration in one's relations to one's fellow men. It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow men of considerateness, not to wound their feelings.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#29. The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#30. 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
#31. The last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.
[Lat., Supremus ille dies non nostri extinctionem sed commutationem affert loci.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#34. It is difficult to tell how much men's minds are conciliated by a kind manner and gentle speech.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#35. Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#38. 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
#43. An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home.
[Lat., Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#44. It is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#45. The wise man knows nothing if he cannot benefit from his wisdom. Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but also to be utilized.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#46. He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#47. The men who administer public affairs must first of all see that everyone holds onto what is his, and that private men are never deprived of their goods by public men.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#49. Guilt is present in the very hesitation, even though the deed be not committed.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#52. We are all excited by the love of praise, and the noblest are most influenced by glory.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#54. 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
#55. It is foolish to pluck out one's hair for sorrow, as if grief could be assuaged by baldness.
[Lat., Stultum est in luctu capillum sibi evellere, quasi calvito maeror levaretur.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#56. It is not enough merely possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practiced.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#57. What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#58. The avarice of the old: it's absurd to increase one's luggage as one nears the journey's end.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#60. Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#61. The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret
that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#62. Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#64. True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can any feigned thing be lasting.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#65. 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
#66. Nothing is so swift as calumny, nothing is more easily propagated, nothing more readily credited, nothing more widely circulated.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#69. In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods, than in giving health to men.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#72. 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.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#73. The foundations of justice are that on one shall suffer wrong; then, that the public good be promoted.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#78. It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one: what, then, shall I say of crucifixion? It is impossible to find the word for such an abomination.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#79. Everything is indefinite, misty, and transient; only virtue is clear, and it cannot be destroyed by any force. - MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
Leo Tolstoy
#80. Not to have knowledge of what happened before you were born is to be condemned to live as a child.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#81. As in the case of wines that improve with age, the oldest friendships ought to be the most delightful.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#83. Nature has granted the use of life like a loan, without fixing any day for repayment.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#84. That man is guilty of impertinence who considers not the circumstances of time, or engrosses the conversation, or makes himself the subject of his discourse, or pays no regard to the company he is in.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#85. No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#86. All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#87. 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.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#88. Those who lack within themselves the means for living a blessed and happy life will find any age painful.
- How to grow old: ancient wisdom for the second half of life.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#91. It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, O ancient house! alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#98. The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
#100. A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
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