Cicero Quotes

La pobreza no curte el alma ni la favorece. La esclaviza.

The beginnings of all things are small.

qui denique, ut Africanum avum meum scribit Cato solitum esse dicere, possit idem de se praedicare, numquam se plus agere, quam nihil cum ageret, numquam minus solum esse, quam cum solus esset.

For old age is respected only if it defends itself, maintains its rights, submits to no one, and rules over its domain until its last breath.

When conscience reigns, it allows no resting-place to lust, violence, and temerity.

what shall I do with Diodotus the Stoic, whose pupil I have been from a boy, who has been my associate for so many years, who lives in my house, whom I both admire and love, and who despises the doctrines of Antiochus that you are putting forward? ‘Our doctrines,’ you will say, ‘are the only true ones.’ If they are true, certainly they are the only true ones, for there cannot be several true systems disagreeing with one another. Then is it we that are shameless, who do not wish to make a slip, or they presumptuous, who have persuaded themselves that they alone know everything?

Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat.

O tempora! O mores!

Речта трябва да произтича и да се развива от познание върху предмета. Ако ораторът не го е обхванал и изучил, то всяко красноречие е напразно, детинско усилие.

Sed tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri nec considerate potest.

Respiraro, si te videro.

But unfortunately, decent people are usually slow to act and ignore dangers until a crisis erupts. They are sluggish and willing to abide with peace without honor, but their own inaction causes them to lose both.

When I notice how carefully arranged his hair is and when I watch him adjusting the parting with one finger, I cannot imagine that this man could conceive of such a wicked thing as to destroy the Roman constitution.

Nothing is more damaging to a state, nothing so contrary to justice and law, nothing less appropriate to a civilized community, than to force through a measure by violence where a country has a settled and established constitution.

The best Armour of Old Age is a well spent life preceding it; a Life employed in the Pursuit of useful Knowledge, in honourable Actions and the Practice of Virtue; in which he who labours to improve himself from his Youth, will in Age reap the happiest Fruits of them; not only because these never leave a Man, not even in the extremest Old Age; but because a Conscience bearing Witness that our Life was well-spent, together with the Remembrance of past good Actions, yields an unspeakable Comfort to the Soul