Quotes & Sayings About Cicero
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Top Cicero Quotes

There is nothing so charming as the knowledge of literature; of that branch of literature, I mean, which enables us to discover the infinity of things, the immensity of Nature, the heavens, the earth, and the seas; this is that branch which has taught us religion, moderation, magnanimity, and that has rescued the soul from obscurity; to make her see all things above and below, first and last, and between both; it is this that furnishes us wherewith to live well and happily, and guides us to pass our lives without displeasure and without offence. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Any man may make a mistake; none but a fool will stick to it. Second thoughts are best as the proverb says.
[Lat., Cujusvis hominis est errare; nullius, nisi insipientis, in errore perseverae. Posteriores enim cogitationes (ut aiunt) sapientiores solent esse.] — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship is the only point in human affairs concerning the benefit of which all, with one voice, agree. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

There has never been a poet or orator who thought another better than himself. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

There is also a tradition about Socrates. He liked walking, it is recorded, until a late hour of the evening, and when someone asked him why he did this he said he was trying to work up an appetite for his dinner. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is of no avail to know what is about to happen; for it is a sad thing to be grieved when grief can do no good. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

If the Aeneid is language as metaphor, as the sacramental ritualizing of human experience, Cicero's speeches are language as practical tool. — Thomas Cahill

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

There is no opinion so stupid that it can't be expressed by some philosopher. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

For he (Cato) gives his opinion as if he were in Plato's Republic, not in Romulus' cesspool. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Justice extorts no reward, no kind of price; she is sought, therefore, for her own sake. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Softly! Softly! I want none but the judges to hear me. The Jews have already gotten me into a fine mess, as they have many other gentleman. I have no desire to furnish further grist for their mills. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

I wonder that a soothsayer doesn't laugh whenever he sees another soothsayer. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

He is sometimes slave who should be master; and sometimes master who should be slave. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing dries sooner than a tear. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods, than in giving health to men. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sweet is the recollection of difficulties overcome. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Mathematics is an obscure field, an abstruse science, complicated and exact; yet so many have attained perfection in it that we might conclude almost anyone who seriously applied himself would achieve a measure of success. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Virtue is increased by the smile of approval; and the love of renown is the greatest incentive to honourable acts. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

In everything, satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

There is no grief which time does not lessen and soften.
[Lat., Nullus dolor est quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat.] — Marcus Tullius Cicero

No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Just as apples when unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This ripeness is so delightful to me that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem, as it were, to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last after a long voyage. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Unraveling the web of Penelope. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Never injure a friend, even in jest. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Not in opinion but in nature is law founded. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of someday being a commander. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift? — Marcus Tullius Cicero

As thou sowest, so shalt thou reap. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

No one can give you better advice than yourself. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sweet is the memory of past troubles. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

What we call pleasure, and rightly so is the absence of all pain. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

He was so sad he didn't even know it. He was convinced if he could just make meaning, he would have meaning. Not knowing meaning came from the outside. — Noah Cicero

I would not have Drool reading Cicero or crafting clever riddles, but under my tutelage he had become more than fair at tumbling and juggling, could belch a song, and was, at court, at least as entertaining as a trained bear, with slightly less proclivity for eating the guests. With guidance, he would make a proper fool. — Christopher Moore

Judge not by the number, but by the weight. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

I prefer the wisdom of the uneducated to the folly of the loquacious. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Exercise and temperance can preserve something of our early strength even in old age. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

For every man's nature is concealed with many folds of disguise, and covered as it were with various veils. His brows, his eyes, and very often his countenance, are deceitful, and his speech is most commonly a lie. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

You are only allowed to ask questions if I give you questions to ask. — Noah Cicero

The world has not yet learned the riches of frugality. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

But as Cicero had long tried to convince him, a speech is a performance, not a philosophical discourse: it must appeal to the emotions more than to the intellect — Robert Harris

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Thus in the beginning the world was so made that certain signs come before certain events. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Read Demosthenes or Cicero, read Plato, Aristotle, or any other of that class: you will, I admit, feel wonderfully allured, pleased, moved, enchanted; but turn from them to the reading of the Sacred Volume, and whether you will or not, it will so affect you, so pierce your heart, so work its way into your very marrow, that, in comparison of the impression so produced, that of orators and philosophers will almost disappear; making it manifest that in the Sacred Volume there is a truth divine, a something which makes it immeasurably superior to all the gifts and graces attainable by man. Section — John Calvin

Friendship is given us by nature, not to favor vice, but to aid virtue. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is difficult to tell how much men's minds are conciliated by a kind manner and gentle speech. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws. — Plutarch

On the subject of the nature of the gods, the first question is Do the gods exist or do the not? It is difficult you may say to deny that they exist. I would agree if we were arguing the matter in a public assembly, but in a private discussion of this kind, it is perfectly easy to do so. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Laws are inoperative in war — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Avoid taking a definite stand on great public issues either in the Senate or before the people. Bend your energies towards making friends of key men in all classes of voters. — Quintus Tullius Cicero

So it may well be believed that when I found him taking a complete holiday, with a vast supply of books at command, he had the air of indulging in a literary debauch, if the term may be applied to so honorable an occupation. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to falter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Of evils one should choose the least.
[Lat., Ex malis eligere minima oportere.] — Marcus Tullius Cicero

What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

You go on, I presume, with your latin Exercises: and I wish to hear of your beginning upon Sallust who is one of the most polished and perfect of the Roman Historians, every Period of whom, and I had almost said every Syllable and every Letter is worth Studying.
In Company with Sallust, Cicero, Tacitus and Livy, you will learn Wisdom and Virtue. You will see them represented, with all the Charms which Language and Imagination can exhibit, and Vice and Folly painted in all their Deformity and Horror.
You will ever remember that all the End of study is to make you a good Man and a useful Citizen. - This will ever be the Sum total of the Advice of your affectionate Father,
John Adams — John Adams