Cicero Quotes

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

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

“It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.”

“To live long, it is necessary to live slowly.”

“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.”

“We may grow old in body, but we need never grow old in mind and spirit.”

“Exercise and temperance can preserve something of our early strength even in old age.”

“A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.”

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

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

“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.”

“Through doubt we arrive at the truth.”

“Judge not by the number, but by the weight.”

“Man is his own worst enemy.”

“A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.”

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

“There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.”

“He is rich who wishes no more than he has.”

“Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body.”

“Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.”

“Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.”

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

“Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.”

“Let your desires be ruled by reason.”

“Hours and days and months and years go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time gives us in which we live, we should therefore be content.”

“It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.”

“The precept,”Know yourself,” was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.”

“If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.”

“The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.”

“Let every man practise the trade which he best understands.”

“If only every man would make proper use of his strength and do his utmost, he need never regret his limited ability.”

“Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”

“Life without learning is death.”

“Nothing so much assists learning as writing down what we wish to remember.”

“No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.”

“Confidence is the feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.”

“A man of courage is also full of faith.”

“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”

“I never admire another’s fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.”

“There is no one who can give you wiser advice than you can give yourself: you will never make a slip, if you listen to your own heart.”

“We should be as careful of our words as of our actions.”

“We don’t believe a liar even when he tells the truth.”

“A good man will not lie, although it be for his profit.”

“I have always been of the opinion that unpopularity earned by doing what is right is not unpopularity at all, but glory.”

“There is no praise in being upright, where no one can, or tries to corrupt you.”

“Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.”

“The great theatre for virtue is conscience.”

“The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue.”

“Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.”