Top 500 Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 5 of 10

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

202. “The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

204. “There is no moment without some duty.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

205. “Nothing is so swift as calumny, nothing is more easily propagated, nothing more readily credited, nothing more widely circulated.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

207. “Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

208. “Most happy is he who is entirely self-reliant, and who centers all his requirements in himself alone.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

209. “Nothing is difficult in the eyes of a lover.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

210. “There is no quality I would rather have, and be thought to have, than gratitude. For it is not only the greatest virtue, but is the mother of all the rest.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

211. “Long life is denied us; therefore let us do something to show that we have lived.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

212. “As in the case of wines that improve with age, the oldest friendships ought to be the most delightful.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

213. “Nature herself has imprinted on the minds of all the idea of God.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

214. “For what I lack in experience I make up for in diligence.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

215. “Of this last kind of comparisons is that quoted from the elder Cato, who, when asked what was the most profitable thing to be done on an estate, replied, “To feed cattle well.” “What second best?” “To feed cattle moderately well.” “What third best?” “To feed cattle, though but poorly.” “What fourth best?” “To plough the land.” And when he who had made these inquiries asked, “What is to be said of making profit by usury?” Cato replied, “What is to be said of making profit by murder?”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

216. “Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

217. “The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

218. “An innocent man, if accused, can be acquitted; a guilty man, unless accused, cannot be condemned. It is, however, more advantageous to absolve an innocent than not to prosecute a guilty man.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

219. “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.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

220. “For every man’s nature is concealed with many folds of disguise, and covered as it were with various veils. His brows, his eyes, and very often his countenance, are deceitful, and his speech is most commonly a lie.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

221. “To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

222. “Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

223. “Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

224. “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.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

225. “I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

226. “There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

227. “Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

228. “If we are forced, at every hour, to watch or listen to horrible events, this constant stream of ghastly impressions will deprive even the most delicate among us of all respect for humanity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

229. “All things tend to corrupt perverted minds.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

231. “Hunger is the best sauce.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

232. “The wise man knows nothing if he cannot benefit from his wisdom. Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but also to be utilized.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

233. “In anger nothing right nor judicious can be done.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

234. “We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

235. “People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

236. “Reason should direct, and appetite obey.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

238. “Sweet is the memory of past troubles.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

239. “This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

240. “Wisdom often exists under a shabby coat.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

242. “Ability without honor is useless.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

243. “If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

244. “Leisure with dignity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

245. “Certain signs precede certain events.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

246. “The great theatre for virtue is conscience.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

247. “It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

248. “Never can custom conquer nature, for she is ever unconquered.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

249. “A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

250. “Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero