Cicero Quotes - Famous Quotes by Cicero
Born: 0106-01-03
Died: 0043-12-07
Cicero Biography
. . . for until that God who rules all the region of the sky. . . has freed you from the fetters of your body, you cannot gain admission here. Men were created with the understanding that they were to look after that sphere called Earth, which you see in the middle of the temple. Minds have been given to them out of the eternal fires you call fixed stars and planets, those spherical solids which, quickened with divine minds, journey through their circuits and orbits with amazing speed....
- Cicero
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A friend is, as it were, a second self.
- Cicero
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A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Happiness ] ***
A home without books is a body without soul.
- Cicero
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A life of peace, purity, and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Old Age ] ***
A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Education ] ***
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero
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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.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Old Age ] ***
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Advice ] ***
All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.
- Cicero
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An unjust peace is better than a just war.
- Cicero
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Anyone who has got a book collection and a garden wants for nothing.
- Cicero
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Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Art ] ***
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.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Old Age ] ***
As the old proverb says Like readily consorts with like.
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Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Body ] ***
By doubting we come at truth.
- Cicero
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By force of arms. (Vi Et Armis)
- Cicero
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Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.
- Cicero
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Democritus maintains that there can be no great poet without a spite of madness.
- Cicero
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Endless money forms the sinews of war.
- Cicero
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Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Character ] ***
For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.
- Cicero
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For if that last day does not occasion an entire extinction, but a change of abode only, what can be more desirable And if it, on the other hand, destroys and absolutely puts an end to us, what can be preferable to having a deep sleep fall on us in the midst of the fatigues of life and, being thus overtaken, to sleep to eternity
- Cicero
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For no phase of life, whether public or private, whether in business or in the home, whether one is working on what concerns oneself alone or dealing with another, can be without its moral duty; on the discharge of such duties depends all that is morally right, and on their neglect all that is morally wrong in life.
- Cicero
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Force overcome by force. (Vi Victa Vis)
- Cicero
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Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.
- Cicero
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Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
- Cicero
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Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
- Cicero
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Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
- Cicero
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He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Passion ] ***
He removes the greatest ornament of friendship, who takes away from it respect.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Respect ] ***
History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.
- Cicero
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I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.
- Cicero
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I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.
- Cicero
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I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
- Cicero
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I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Nature ] [ Culture ] ***
If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Success ] ***
In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Desire ] ***
In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.
- Cicero
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It is a great thing to know our vices.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Vice ] ***
It is a true saying that One falsehood leads easily to another.
- Cicero
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It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.
- Cicero
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Justice consists in doing no injury to men decency in giving them no offense.
- Cicero
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Law stands mute in the midst of arms.
- Cicero
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Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.
- Cicero
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Let the punishment match the offense.
- Cicero
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Let your desires be ruled by reason.(Appetitus Rationi Pareat)
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Desire ] [ Reason ] ***
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
- Cicero
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Live as brave men and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.
- Cicero
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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.
- Cicero
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Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men.
- Cicero
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Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
- Cicero
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Nature herself makes the wise man rich.
- Cicero
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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.
- Cicero
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Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.
- Cicero
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Never injure a friend, even in jest.
- Cicero
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No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
- Cicero
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No one can give you better advice than yourself.
- Cicero
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No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.
- Cicero
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No sane man will dance.
- Cicero
More quotations on: [ Dance ] ***
Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.
- Cicero
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Nothing quite new is perfect.
- Cicero
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Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children
- Cicero
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Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.
- Cicero
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Our thoughts are free.
- Cicero
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Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat: coeli scrutantur plagas.
(No one sees what is before his feet: we all gaze at the stars.)
- Cicero
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Reason should direct and appetite obey.
- Cicero
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Strain every nerve to gain your point.
- Cicero
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Such praise coming from so degraded a source, was degrading to me, its recipient.
- Cicero
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The absolute good is not a matter of opinion but of nature.
- Cicero
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The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
- Cicero
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The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.
- Cicero
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The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.
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The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.
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The freedom of poetic license.
- Cicero
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The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret - that man is black at heart mark and avoid him.
- Cicero
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The more laws, the less justice.
- Cicero
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The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquillity, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.
- Cicero
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The people's good is the highest law.
- Cicero
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The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
- Cicero
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The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.
- Cicero
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The spirit is the true self.
- Cicero
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The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong.
- Cicero
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The welfare of the people is the ultimate law.
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The wise are instructed by reason ordinary minds by experience the stupid, by necessity and brutes by instinct.
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There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.
- Cicero
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There is no being of any race who, if he finds the proper guide, cannot attain to virtue.
- Cicero
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There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.
- Cicero
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There is no place more delightful than home.
- Cicero
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There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.
- Cicero
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To be content with what one has is the greatest and truest of riches.
- Cicero
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To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times
- Cicero
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To each his own.
- Cicero
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Vivere est cogitare. (To think is to live)
- Cicero
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We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race.
- Cicero
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We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.
- Cicero
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We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.
- Cicero
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What a time! What a civilization!
- Cicero
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What we call pleasure, and rightly so is the absence of all pain.
- Cicero
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Whatever that be which thinks, understands, wills, and acts. it is something celestial and divine.
- Cicero
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When you have no basis of argument, abuse the plaintiff.
- Cicero
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When you wish to instruct, be brief that men'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.
- Cicero
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Where is there dignity unless there is honesty
- Cicero
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While there's life, there's hope.
- Cicero
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