Cicero Quotes

226 Sourced Quotes

I follow nature as the surest guide, and resign myself with implicit obedience to her sacred ordinances.

Cicero
How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?

Cicero
In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

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Lay down this rule of friendship: neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong. The plea, 'for friendship's sake,' is a discreditable one, and should not be admitted for a moment. We should ask from friends and do for friends only what is good.

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He removes the greatest ornament of friendship who takes away from it respect.

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For it is commonly said: completed labours are pleasant.

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Before entering any occupation, diligent preparation is to be undertaken.

Cicero
From this followed the corollary, that many sensations are probable, that is, though not amounting to a full perception they are yet possessed of a certain distinctness and clearness, and so can direct the conduct of the wise man.

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.

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The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

Cicero
Socrates... says that the best sauce for food is hunger and the best flavoring for drink thirst.

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For there is nothing that happens on earth that is more welcome to that supreme God who rules the whole universe than the institutions and congregations of men united by a sense of right, which are called states.

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Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.

Cicero
There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.

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The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.

Cicero
For it is not having insufficient knowledge, but persisting a long time in insufficient knowledge that is shameful; since the one is assumed to be a disease common to all, but the other is assumed to be a flaw to an individual.

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So it may well be believed that when I found him taking a complete holiday, with a vast supply of books at command, he had the air of indulging in a literary debauch, if the term may be applied to so honorable an occupation.

Cicero
Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill.

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

Cicero
I should prefer uneloquent good sense to loquacious folly

Cicero
That is probable which for the most part usually comes to pass, or which is a part of the ordinary beliefs of mankind.

Cicero
And, indeed, when I reflect on this subject I find four reasons why old age appears to be unhappy: first, that it withdraws us from active pursuits; second, that it makes the body weaker; third, that it deprives us of almost all physical pleasures; and, fourth, that it is not far removed from death.

Cicero
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
Every stage of human life, except the last, is marked out by certain and defined limits; old age alone has no precise and determinate boundary.

Cicero
All I can do is to urge on you to regard friendship as the greatest thing in the world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity.

Cicero
I have always been of the opinion that infamy earned by doing what is right is not infamy at all, but glory.

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Friendship is the only point in human affairs concerning the benefit of which all, with one voice, agree.

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For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

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But still anger ought be far from us, for nothing is able to be done rightly nor judiciously with anger.

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We may, indeed, indulge in sport and jest, but in the same way as we enjoy sleep or other relaxations, and only when we have satisfied the claims of our earnest, serious task.

Cicero