Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

“Politeness and an affable address are our best introduction.”

“I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money. Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.”

“But in every matter the consensus of opinion among all nations is to be regarded as the law of nature.”

“There is sufficient reward in the mere consciousness of a good action.”

“In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.”

“Please go on, make your threats. I don't like to submit to mere implication.”

“The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.”

“To give counsel, as well as to take it, is a feature of true friendship.”

“Friendship embraces innumerable ends; turn where you will it is ever at your side; no barrier shuts it out; it is never untimely and never in the way.”

“The following passage is one of those cited by Copernicus himself in his preface to De Revolutionibus: "The Syracusan Hicetas, as Theophrastus asserts, holds the view that the heaven, sun, moon, stars, and in short all of the things on high are stationary, and that nothing in the world is in motion except the earth, which by revolving and twisting round its axis with extreme velocity produces all the same results as would be produced if the earth were stationary and the heaven in motion. . . ."”

“What is dishonorably got, is dishonorably squandered.”

“The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.”

“The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.”

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all the other virtues.”

“Peace is so beneficial that the word itself is pleasant to hear.”

“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.”

“A wise man does nothing by constraint.”

“A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.”

“Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.”

“They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair. I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race.”

“A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.”

“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.”

“It is as hard for the good to suspect evil, as it is for the bad to suspect good.”

“Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.”