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Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Philosopher

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a prominent philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, and writer during the late Roman Republic. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but he was active in the 1st century BC. Known for his profound thoughts and exceptional literary style, Cicero has had a lasting impact on Western culture.

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Famous Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

“Man is his own worst enemy.”

Men Enemy Worst Worst Enemy My Own Worst Enemy

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Nature has inclined us to love men.”

Men Brotherhood

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honor, command, power, and glory.”

Men Character Desire Found Genius Honor Highest Glory Command Insatiable

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“It is the act of a bad man to deceive by falsehood.”

Men Deceit Falsehood Deceiving Bad Man

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Ifs Men Inspirational Needs Use Ability Regret Every Man Never Regret

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“If a man could mount to Heaven and survey the mighty universe, his admiration of its beauties would be much diminished unless he had someone to share in his pleasure.”

Ifs Men Would Be Universe Heaven Pleasure Share Loyalty Admiration Surveys

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“A careful physician . . . before he attempts to administer a remedy to his patient, must investigate not only the malady of the man he wishes to cure, but also his habits when in health, and his physical constitution.”

Men Wish He Man Habit Healthy Constitution Patient Careful Cures Retirement Remedy Physicians Malady

Book:Cicero: De oratore ...

Source: Cicero: De oratore ...

“No sensible man ever imputes inconsistency to another for changing his minds.”

Men Mind Cycles Sensible Inconsistency

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Men Causes Walks Power Orators Horseback Vehement

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man's life.”

Men Evil Worry Goodness Good Life Inability

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.”

Men Life Doe Virtue Suspects Virtuous Vicious

Book:Cicero's Three Books of Offices: Or Moral Duties; Also His Cato Major ... Laelius ... Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Tr., with Notes ...

Source: Cicero's Three Books of Offices: Or Moral Duties; Also His Cato Major ... Laelius ... Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Tr., with Notes ...

“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”

Men Order Universe Eternal Respect Deserve Excellent Celestial Homage

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.”

Men Government Powerful Mouths Vote Violent Bread Innocent Substance Voting Destructive Honorable Extravagant Honorable Man

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another.”

Men Together Faith Force Credit Honestly Cement

Book:The Orations

Source: The Orations

“Crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but by the bad intentions of men.”

Men Issues Events Crime Intention Bad Intentions

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Cicero (Illustrated)

“. . . 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.”

“For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than #‎ agriculture”

Men Wells Profession Agriculture Delightful

Book: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

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

“No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.”

Men Should Ignorance Gains

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!”

Men World Action Fortune Enormous Acquittal

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“An agreement of rash men (a conspiracy).”

Men Agreement Conspiracy

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The men who administer public affairs must first of all see that everyone holds onto what is his, and that private men are never deprived of their goods by public men.”

Men Firsts Government He Man Affair Goods Deprived Public Affairs

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The gardener plants trees, not one berry of which he will ever see: and shall not a public man plant laws, institutions, government, in short, under the same conditions?”

Men Government Law Tree Conditions Institutions Plant Gardener Berries Plant A Tree

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery.”

Men Nations Liberty Too Much Slavery

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Let a man practice the profession which he best knows.”

Knows Men Practice Profession

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one.”

Men Mistake Fool

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“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.”

Men Self Body Form Spirit Figures Fingers Your Body Mortals True Self

Book:De Re Publica

Source: De Re Publica

“He has no worse enemy than himself.”

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a preeminently great man than courtesy and forbearance.”

Men Becoming Great Men Courtesy Forbearance

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“The more peculiarly his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.”

Men Character Fit Character Of A Man

Book:De Officiis Or on Duties on Obligations

Source: De Officiis Or on Duties on Obligations

“Men do not realize how great an income thrift is.”

Men Realizing Income Thrift

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“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.”

Men Should Doe Care Suffering Taken Guilt Punishment Offense Exceed

Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Nothing in oratory is more important than to win for the orator the favour of his hearer, and to have the latter so affected as to be swayed by something resembling an impulse of the spirit impetu quodam animi or emotion perturbatione, rather than by judgment or deliberation. For men decide far more problems by hate, or love, or lust, or rage, or sorrow, or joy, or hope, or fear, or illusion, or some other inward emotion aliqua permotione mentis, than by reality or authority, or any legal standard, or judicial precedent or statute.”