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Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

To some extent I liken slavery to death.
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.
I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
A man of courage is also full of faith.
True nobility is exempt from fear.
Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.
Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.
Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.
Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.
What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.
A friend is, as it were, a second self.
Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.
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.
Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.
Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.
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.
Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.
Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.
Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.
Thrift is of great revenue.
No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.
People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.
Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.
A home without books is a body without soul.
While there's life, there's hope.
Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.
The more laws, the less justice.
While there's life, there's hope.
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
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.
Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.
Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.
Live as brave men and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.