Roman Quotes

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Oh, beauty, ever ancient and ever new.

Friendship is infinitely better than kindness.

The sky and the earth and the waters and the things that are in them, the fishes, and the birds and the trees are not evil. All these are good; it is evil men who make this evil world.

No grief is so acute but time ameliorates it.

To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.

Let art, then, imitate nature, find what she desires, and follow as she directs. For in invention nature is never last, education never first; rather the beginnings of things arise from natural talent, and ends are reached by discipline.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

Let arms yield to the toga, let the [victor's] laurel yield to the [orator's] tongue.

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.

The home is the empire! There is no peace more delightful than one's own fireplace.

The whole contains nothing which is not or its advantage; and all natures indeed have this common principle, but the nature of the universe has this principle besides, that it cannot be compelled even by any external cause to generate anything harmful to itself.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

The leaders should all relate to this principle: the governed must be as happy as possible.

No one wearies of benefits received.

Keep yourself simple, good, pure, serious, and unassuming; the friend of justice and godliness; kindly, affectionate, and resolute in your devotion to duty.

If I fail it is only because I have too much pride and ambition.

Why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.

Friends, though absent, are still present.

Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self respect, to hate any person, to curse, to act the hypocrite.

A man's happiness,-to do the things proper to man.

To those who are engaged in commercial dealings, justice is indispensable for the conduct of business.

It is a great proof of talents to be able to recall the mind from the senses, and to separate thought from habit.

Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.

The measure of love is to love without measuring.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Pardon is granted to necessity.

Thus nature has no love for solitude, and always leans, as it were, on some support; and the sweetest support is found in the most intimate friendship.

Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.

The rich are like beasts of burden, carrying treasure all day, and at the night of death unladen; they carry to their grave only the bruises and marks of their toil.

It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.

Never forget that the universe is a single living organism possessed of one substance and one soul, holding all things suspended in a single consciousness and creating all things with a single purpose that they might work together spinning and weaving and knotting whatever comes to pass.

Death, like birth, is one of nature's mysteries, the combining of primal elements and dissolving of the same into the same.

For as the law is set over the magistrate, even so are the magistrates set over the people. And therefore, it may be truly said, "that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law is a silent magistrate.

Be cheerful, also, and seek not external help, nor the peace which others give. A man must stand straight, and not be kept straight by others.

They condemn what they do not understand.

Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!

Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth.

Remember that all is opinion.

Can there be greater foolishness than the respect you pay to people collectively when you despise them individually?

Consider frequently the connection of all things in the universe and their relation to one another. For things are somehow implicated with one another, and all in a way friendly to one another.

Our country is wherever we are well off.[Lat., Patria est, ubicunque est bene.]

After all, what does fame everlasting mean? Mere vanity.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

"I believe that no characteristic is so distinctively human as the sense of indebtedness we feel, not necessarily for a favor received, but even for the slightest evidence of kindness; and there is nothing so boorish, savage, inhuman as to appear to be overwhelmed by a favor, let alone unworthy of it."

I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.

An angry look on the face is wholly against nature. If it be assumed frequently, beauty begins to perish, and in the end is quenched beyond rekindling.

Virtue is increased by the smile of approval; and the love of renown is the greatest incentive to honourable acts.

The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time.

To freemen, threats are impotent.[Lat., Nulla enim minantis auctoritas apud liberos est.]

Let necessity, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you.

In prosperity let us most carefully avoid pride, disdain, and arrogance.

How do our philosophers act? Do they not inscribe their signatures to the very essays they write on the propriety of despising glory.

Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the moutains . . . But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree . . . when thou canst at a moment's notice retire into thyself.

What are kingdoms without justice? They're just gangs of bandits.

How can a man find a sensible way to live? One way and one only- Philosophy. And my philosophy means keeping that vital spark within you free from damage and degradation, using it to transcend pain and pleasure, doing everything with a purpose, avoiding lies and hypocrisy, not relying on another person's actions or failings. To accept everything that comes, and everything that is given, as coming from that same spiritual source.

Any man may make a mistake; none but a fool will stick to it. Second thoughts are best as the proverb says.

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before his moment. Now view the rest of your life as a bonus.