Top 500 Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “There are no true friends in politics.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

202. “If our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

203. “The precept, “Know yourself,” was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

204. “Strain every nerve to gain your point.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

205. “The whole life of a philosopher is the meditation of his death.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

206. “Religion is the pious worship of God.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

207. “A man would have no pleasures in discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself, unless he had a partner to whom he might communicate his joys.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

208. “Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

210. “To reduce man to the duties of his own city, and to disengage him from duties to the members of other cities, is to break the universal society of the human race.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

212. “God’s law is ‘right reason.’ When perfectly understood it is called ‘wisdom.’ When applied by government in regulating human relations it is called ’justice.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

213. “There is pleasure in calm remembrance of a past sorrow.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

214. “A man has no enemy worse than himself.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

215. “Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

216. “In the master there is a servant, in the servant a master.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

217. “A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

220. “If nature does not ratify law, then all the virtues may lose their sway.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

224. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

226. “Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

228. “Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and to place it in cities, and even to introduce it into homes and compel it to inquire about life and standards and goods and evils.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

229. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

232. “For hardly any man dances when sober, unless he is insane. Nor does he dance while alone, nor at a respectable and moderate party. Dancing is the final phase of a wild party with fancy decorations and a multitude of delights.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

233. “No tempest or conflagration, however great, is harder to quell than mob carried away by the novelty of power.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

235. “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

236. “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

237. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

239. “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

240. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

242. “Let us not go over the old ground but rather prepare for what is to come.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

244. “The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

245. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

247. “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.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

250. “Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero