“Not to have knowledge of what happened before you were born is to be condemned to live as a child.”
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Famous Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes
Source: Three Books of Offices; Or, Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Translated, with Notes, Designed to Exhibit a Comparative View of the Opinions of Cicero, and Those of Modern Moralists and Ethical Philosophers
“The spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by your finger.”
Source: De Re Publica
“No phase of life, whether public or private, can be free from duty.”
“He removes the greatest ornament of friendship who takes away from it respect.”
Source: Cicero's Three books of offices, or moral duties: also his Cato Major, an essay on old age; Lælius, an essay on friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's dream; and Letter to Quintus on the duties of a magistrate
“The proof of a well-trained mind is that it rejoices in which is good and grieves at the opposite.”
Source: Essays on old age and friendship
“The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish.”
“There is no one so old as to not think they may live a day longer.”
Source: Three Books of Offices; Or, Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Translated, with Notes, Designed to Exhibit a Comparative View of the Opinions of Cicero, and Those of Modern Moralists and Ethical Philosophers
“It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.”
Source: Cato Major: Or, A Treatise on Old Age
“It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.”
“Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.”
Source: De Officiis Or on Duties on Obligations
Source: Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero with His Treatises on Friendship and Old Age: Letters of Pliny the Younger
“Persistence in a single view has never been regarded as a merit in political leaders.”
“There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it.”
“Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth.”
“Honor is the reward of virtue.”
Source: Cicero on Oratory and Orators
“I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.”
Source: Cicero's Three Books Of Offices, Or Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate
Source: Cicero in twenty-nine volumes
“For he, indeed, who looks into the face of a friend beholds, as it were, a copy of himself.”
Source: Cicero de Amicitia (on Friendship) and Scipio's Dream
“It is like taking the sun out of the world, to bereave human life of friendship.”
Source: Ethical Writings of Cicero: Cicero De Officiis, Cicero De Senectute, Cicero De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream
Source: Cicero de Amicitia (on Friendship) and Scipio's Dream
Source: Cicero de Amicitia (on Friendship) and Scipio's Dream
“We are not born, we do not live for ourselves alone; our country, our friends, have a share in us.”
“In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.”
“In the conduct of almost every affair slowness and procrastination are hateful”
Source: The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero
“We study history not to be clever in another time, but to be wise always.”
“You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.”
“Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.”
“Do not hold the delusion that your advancement is accomplished by crushing others.”
“Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.”
Source: Cicero
“Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.”
“The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.”
Source: De Oratore: Book III