Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

Any man is liable to err only a fool persists in error.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

Any man can make mistakes but only an idiot persists in his error.

All pain is either severe or slight if slight it is easily endured, if severe it will without doubt be brief.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

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

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

One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed actually sees.

A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.

If you have no confidence in self you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence you have won even before you have started.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission it is not a denial either.

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

What sweetness is left in life if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

To live is to think.

When you have no basis for an argument abuse the plaintiff.

Hatred is settled anger.

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.

What nobler employment or more valuable to the state than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Rashness belongs to youth, prudence to old age.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

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.

In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.

In time of war the laws are silent.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

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

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

Never go to excess but let moderation be your guide.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.

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

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.

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

It is the nature of every person to error but only the fool perseveres in error.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

That last day does not bring extinction to us but change of place.

The greater the difficulty the greater the glory.

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

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

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.

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.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul as clemency and readiness to forgive.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

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

Nature abhors annihilation.

Virtue is a habit of the mind consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly to injure no one and to give everyone else his due.

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

Before beginning plan carefully.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men, decency in giving them no offense.

The false is nothing but an imitation of the true.

Time destroys the speculation of men but it confirms nature.

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

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

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

More law less justice.

What an ugly beast the ape and how like us.

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech whether in a senator or an orator.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.

The more laws the less justice.

The enemy is within the gates, it is with our own luxury our own folly our own criminality that we have to contend.

Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat.

For a tear is quickly dried especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

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

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves even in those books which they write in contempt of glory inscribe their names.