Statesman · Roman · 173 quotes
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Statesman · Roman
A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.
What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.
All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief.
A home without books is a body without soul.
No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.
No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.
The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.
Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.
What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.
That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.
Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.
The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.
For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.
Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.
No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.
In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred.
Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.
An unjust peace is better than a just war.
The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.
In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.
Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
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.
We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.
Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.
Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.
Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.
If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.
You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.
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.
The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.
The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
