Cicero quotes: top famous quotes and sayings by Cicero

Top Cicero Quotes

Browse top 135 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by Cicero.

Favorite Cicero Quotes

1. "Apollo, sacred guard of earth's true core, Whence first came frenzied, wild prophetic word..." ~ Cicero

2. "In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people." ~ Cicero

3. "The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time." ~ Cicero

4. "What is sweeter than lettered ease?" ~ Cicero

5. "We are bound by the law, so that we may be free." ~ Cicero

6. "I conclude, then, that the plea of having acted in the interests of a friend is not a valid excuse for a wrong action. . . . We may then lay down this rule of friendship--neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong. For the plea "for friendship's sake" is a discreditable one, and not to be admitted for a moment." ~ Cicero

7. "Si quieres aprender, enseña." ~ Cicero

8. "atque illi artifices corporis simulacra ignotis nota faciebant; quae uel si nulla, nihilo sint tamen obscuriores clari uiri." ~ Cicero

9. "Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus" ~ Cicero

10. "The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter." ~ Cicero

11. "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." ~ Cicero

12. "Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do." ~ Cicero

13. "Life is nothing without friendship." ~ Cicero

14. "Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom." ~ Cicero

15. "El pasado es también el presente y el futuro. La nación que olvida está pérdida." ~ Cicero

16. "The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intention." ~ Cicero

17. "He must protect the lives and interests of the people, appeal to his fellow citizens' patriotic interests, and, in general, set the welfare of the community above his own" ~ Cicero

18. "Quid? Quod eadem mente res dissimillimas comprehendimus, ut colorem saporem, calorem, odorem, sonum? Quae numquam quinque nuntiis animus cognosceret, nisi ad eum omnia referrentur et is omnium iudex solus esset." ~ Cicero

19. "Nam eloquentiam quae admirationem non habet nullam iudico" ~ Cicero

20. "En un mot, nos mains tâchent de faire dans la nature, pour ainsi dire, une autre nature." ~ Cicero

21. "Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!" ~ Cicero

22. "Two distinctive traits especially identify beyond a doubt a strong and dominant character. One trait is contempt for external circumstances, when one is convinced that men ought to respect, to desire, and to pursue only what is moral and right, that men should be subject to nothing, not to another man, not to some disturbing passion, not to Fortune. The second trait, when your character has the disposition I outlined just now, is to perform the kind of services that are significant and most beneficial; but they should also be services that are a severe challenge, that are filled with ordeals, and that endanger not only your life but also the many comforts that make life attractive.Of these two traits, all the glory, magnificence, and the advantage, too, let us not forget, are in the second, while the drive and the discipline that make men great are in the former." ~ Cicero

23. "The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal." ~ Cicero

24. "Wohl niemand tanzt, wenn er nüchtern ist, er müsste denn den Verstand verloren haben." ~ Cicero

25. "Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability." ~ Cicero

26. "My dear Scipio and Laelius. Men, of course, who have no resources in themselves for securing a good and happy life find every age burdensome. But those who look for all happiness from within can never think anything bad which Nature makes inevitable." ~ Cicero

27. "Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.)" ~ Cicero

28. "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

29. "Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you." ~ Cicero

30. "A man of faith is also full of courage" ~ Cicero

31. "Lucius Cassius ille quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum iudicem putabat identidem in causis quaerere solebat 'cui bono' fuisset.The famous Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to regard as a very honest and wise judge, was in the habit of asking, time and again, 'To whose benefit?" ~ Cicero

32. "To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic." ~ Cicero

33. "True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions." ~ Cicero

34. "I criticize by creation, not by finding fault." ~ Cicero

35. "What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might." ~ Cicero

36. "For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked." ~ Cicero

37. "To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory." ~ Cicero

38. "Omnia mea mecum porto." ~ Cicero

39. "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." ~ Cicero

40. "Dogs wait for us faithfully." ~ Cicero

41. "Endless money forms the sinews of war." ~ Cicero

42. "L'amicizia supera in questo la parentela: nella parentela l'affetto si può eliminare, nell'amicizia no; infatti, tolto l'affetto viene meno l'amicizia stessa, la parentela rimane." ~ Cicero

43. "Cum dignitate otium" ~ Cicero

44. "L'amico certo si vede nella sorte incerta." ~ Cicero

45. "Old age: the crown of life, our play's last act." ~ Cicero

46. "Das also ist keine Freundschaft, dass, wenn der eine die Wahrheit nicht hören will, der andere zum Lügen bereit ist.Laelius de amicitia (Über die Freundschaft) 98(Original lat.: "Nulla est igitur haec amicitia, cum alter verum audire non vult, alter ad mentiendum paratus est.")" ~ Cicero

47. "What an ugly beast is the ape, and how like us." ~ Cicero

48. "I cannot find a faithful message-bearer," he wrote to his friend, the scholar Atticus. "How few are they who are able to carry a rather weighty letter without lightening it by reading." ~ Cicero

49. "I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war." ~ Cicero

50. "Non nobis solum nati sumus.(Not for ourselves alone are we born.)" ~ Cicero

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