Marcus Tullius Cicero famous quotes

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

#Friendship #Philosophical #Jest

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Death #Memories #Grieving

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Life #Friendship

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Children #Life And Love #Philosophical

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

#Mean #Loss #Rome

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

#Truth #Philosophical #Thinking

A man of courage is also full of faith.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Life #Faith

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.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Crush #Mistake #Believe

Nothing dries sooner than a tear.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Tears

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Wise #Wisdom #Philosophical

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Patience #Philosophical

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Learning #Waiting #Mind

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Character #Reflection #Dexterity

You must therefore love me, myself, and not my circumstances, if we are to be real friends.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Friends #Real #Circumstances

It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Freedom #Evil

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Thank You #Thanksgiving

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Knowledge #Justice #May

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Freedom

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Quality #Peculiar #Fool

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Freedom #Liberty #Tyranny

Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Evil #Stronger #Bud

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Education #Knowledge #Knowing Who You Are

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

#Life #Philosophical #Men

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

#Lame #Study #Results

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Shadow #Virtue

Hatred is settled anger.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Hate #Anger #Hatred

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Justice #Injustice #Prison

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Truth #Philosophical #Imitation

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Speech #Recommendations

The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Blessing #Age

Ability without honor is useless.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Army #Honor #Useless

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

#Men #Criminals #Might

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

#Flower #Fall #Roots

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Tears #Trouble

The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Men #Doe #Virtue

Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Friendship #Best Friend #Men

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Baby #Children #Men

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Memories #Philosophical #Intriguing

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

#Best Friend #Philosophical #Sake

It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Fitness #Health #Exercise

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

#Memories #Love You #Heart

Dogs wait for us faithfully.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Cute #Dog #Waiting

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.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Truth #Fire #Infinity

The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Law #Causes #Serious

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Children #Ignorance #Political

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

#Children #Teaching #Science

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Men #Soul #Mind

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Believe #Gains #Action

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Taken #Men #Suffering

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Thank You #Children #Book

Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Helping Others #Born

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Dog #Stupid #Men

Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Eye #Light

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Health

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

#Gratitude #Philosophical #Envy

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

#Eternity #Ageless #Gems

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Innocence #Guilty

The best interpreter of the law is custom.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Law #Interpreter

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Good Life #Values

Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Crush #Competition #Advancement

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Cohabitation #Consensus

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

#Inspiration #Soul #Divine

To some extent I liken slavery to death.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Slavery

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Men #Race #Community

While there's life, there's hope.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Life #Hope #Philosophical

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Character #Men #Fire

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

#Inspirational #Education #Teacher

An unjust peace is better than a just war.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Life #War #Philosophical

A friend is, as it were, a second self.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Friendship #Philosophical #Cat

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Power #Majority

A home without books is a body without soul.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Book #Philosophical #Home

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Silence #Denial

What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Education #Teacher #Teaching

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Law #People #Safety

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Motivational #Truth #Mind

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Charm #Brevity

The more laws, the less justice.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Peace #War #Law

Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey's end.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Time #Stupid #Journey

What is permissible is not always honorable.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Honorable

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

#Sorry #Philosophical #Strikes

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Mistake #Philosophical #Failure

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

#Justice #Virtue #Glory

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Wise #Wisdom

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Oratory #Unbelievable

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Love #Life #Family

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Law #May #Lawyer

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Philosophical #Wish

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

#Eye #Mind #Faces

Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Trust #Trust No One #Salt

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

#Men #Members #Commonwealth

By doubting we come at truth.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Life #Doubt #Truth Of Life

We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Race #Unions #Fellowship

There exists a law, not written down anywhere but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Reading #Heart #Law

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Friendship #Reliability #Tests

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Book #Giving #House

A man would have no pleasures in discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself, unless he had a partner to whom he might communicate his joys.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Men #Joy #Heaven

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Politician #Born

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Men #Thinking #Spirituality

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

#Inspirational #Inspiration #Divine

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

#Inspirational #Life #Memories