Cicero

From BillionQuotes

The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC - 7 December 43 BC) Orator and statesman of Ancient Rome; the standard English pronunciation of his name is [ˈsɪsərəʊ], though in classical Latin it was [ˈkikero])

1 Sourced
- 1.1 De Amicitia - On Friendship (44 B.C.)
- 1.2 M. Tulli Ciceronis Orator Ad M. Brutum (46 B.C.)
2 Attributed
- 2.1 With original Latin
- 2.2 Translations
3 External links

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Sourced

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
- Pro Plancio (54 B.C.)

While there's life, there's hope.
- Ad Atticum - To Atticus

There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it.
- De Divinatione

Let the punishment match the offense.
- De Legibus

The people's good is the highest law.
- De Legibus

Endless money forms the sinews of war.
- Philippics

Inter arma enim silent leges
- Law stands mute in the midst of arms.
- Pro Milone
  Variant translation: In a time of war, the law falls silent.

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 antiquity.
- Pro Publio Sestio

The freedom of poetic license.
- Pro Publio Sestio

On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.
- The Extremes of Good and Evil as translated by H. Rackham (1914)
- Is commonly used in its original classical Latin form as "Lorem ipsum", or placeholder text for tests and demonstrations in publishing.

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De Amicitia - On Friendship (44 B.C.)

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.

Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.

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M. Tulli Ciceronis Orator Ad M. Brutum (46 B.C.)

Prima enim sequentem honestum est in secundis tertiisque consistere. (3)
- If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.
- Variant translation: If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.

Nescire autem quid ante quam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. Quid enim est aetas hominis, nisi ea memoria rerum veterum cum superiorum aetate contexitur? (120)
- Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age?
- Variant translation: To be ignorant of the past is to forever be a child.

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Attributed

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With original Latin

Respublica est consensus juris et communio utilitatis
- The Republic is a common law and the common good

Appetitus Rationi Pareat
- Let your desires be ruled by reason.

Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit.
- No one dances sober, unless he is insane

Obsequium parit amicos; veritas parit odium.
- Compliance produces friends; truth produces hate.

Quidem concessum est rhetoribus ementiri in historiis ut alizuid dicere possint argutius.
- Orators are indeed permitted to lie about historical matters so they can speak more subtly.

Quousque tandem.
- To what lengths?
  Variant translation: How long, pray?

Salus Populi Est Suprema Lex.
- The welfare of the people is the ultimate law.

Suum Cuique.
- To each his own.

Vi Et Armis.
- By force and arms.

Vi Victa Vis.
- Force overcome by force.

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Translations

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?

A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.

A life of peace, purity, and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.

A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.

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.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.

All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.

As the old proverb says "Like readily consorts with like."

Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Freedom is participation in power.

Friends, though absent, are still present.
- Friends, though absent, are present still.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

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

I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature.

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

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

It is a great thing to know our vices.

It is a true saying that "One falsehood leads easily to another".

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

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

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

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

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

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

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

Nothing quite new is perfect.

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.

Our thoughts are free.

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

Reason should direct and appetite obey.

Strain every nerve to gain your point.

Such praise coming from so degraded a source, was degrading to me, its recipient.

The absolute good is not a matter of opinion but of nature.

The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.

The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.

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.

The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquillity, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong.

The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.

There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.

There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.

To be content with what one has is the greatest and truest of riches.

We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race.

We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.

We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.

What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

What we call pleasure, and rightly so is the absence of all pain.

When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men'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.