Marcus Tullius Quotes & Sayings

Fortune, not wisdom, rules lives. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent. — 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

Salus populi suprema est lex [the good of the people is the chief law]. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Yield, ye arms, to the toga; to civic praise, ye laurels. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nothing quite new is perfect. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

There never was a great soul that did not have some divine inspiration. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Pleasant is the recollection of dangers past. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The law is silent during war.
[Lat., Silent leges inter arma.] — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The name of peace is sweet, the thing itself is most salutary. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is sweeter than lettered ease? — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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.' — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Before beginning, plan carefully. — 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

Anger should never appear in awarding punishment. — 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

Memory is the receptacle and sheath of all knowledge — 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

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

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

All the arts of refinement have mutual kinship. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hatred is a settled anger. — 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

Learning is a kind of natural food for the mind. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil. — 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

There is no fortune so strong that money cannot take it. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

A letter does not blush. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

No one is so old that he does not think he could live another year. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Silent enim leges inter arma (Laws are silent in times of war). — 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

The celestial order and the beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being, who deserves the respect and homage of men — 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

The habit of arguing in support of atheism, whether it be done from conviction or in pretense, is a wicked and impious practice. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Our thoughts are free. — 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

Come now: Do we really think that the gods are everywhere called by the same names by which they are addressed by us? But the gods have as many names as there are languages among humans. For it is not with the gods as with you: you are Velleius wherever you go, but Vulcan is not Vulcan in Italy and in Africa and in Spain. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sweet is the memory of past troubles. — 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

To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Unraveling the web of Penelope. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hatred is inveterate anger. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Not in opinion but in nature is law founded. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

Never injure a friend, even in jest. — 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

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

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

I prefer the wisdom of the uneducated to the folly of the loquacious. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing dries sooner than a tear. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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

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

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

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

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

Laws are inoperative in war — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sweet is the recollection of difficulties overcome. — 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

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

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal. — 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

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

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