Top 1054 Quotes & Sayings by Marcus Tullius Cicero - Page 3

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

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

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

The eyes like sentinel occupy the highest place in the body.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

In time of war the laws are silent.

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.

Like associates with like.

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.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

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

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief.

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

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

Every man's reputation proceeds from those of his own household.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

Before beginning, plan carefully.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

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

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

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

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

No obligation to do the impossible is binding.

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees.

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

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

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.

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

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

This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

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

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

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.'

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.

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.

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

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

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.