Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

While there's life, there's hope.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

Life is nothing without friendship.

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.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.

It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's [children's] minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.

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

Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.

The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt.

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

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

Ability without honor is useless.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

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

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquities.

A man of courage is also full of faith.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.

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.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

If we are forced, at every hour, to watch or listen to horrible events, this constant stream of ghastly impressions will deprive even the most delicate among us of all respect for humanity.

The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues

The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true. Moreover, there shall be no suspicion of partiality in his writing, or of malice.

The foundation of justice is good faith.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

Friendship makes prosperity more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

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

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

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

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

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

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.

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

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

They are eloquent who can speak low things acutely, and of great things with dignity, and of moderate things with temper.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.