Top 500 Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “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

252. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

254. “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

255. “Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

257. “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

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

260. “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

261. “Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

263. “As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the mind is eloquence.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

265. “Patria est communis omnium parens. Our country is the common parent of all.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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266. “Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

267. “Ability without honor is useless.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

268. “Certain signs precede certain events.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

270. “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

271. “Leisure with dignity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

272. “I cease not to advocate peace; even though unjust it is better than the most just war.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

273. “If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

275. “Let us drink for the replenishment of our strength, not for our sorrow.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

277. “Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

278. “Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

279. “Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

281. “There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

282. “Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

283. “The greatest incitement to guilt is the hope of sinning with impunity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

284. “Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

285. “The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

286. “Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

287. “The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

288. “The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

289. “Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

290. “Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

291. “I will go further, and assert that nature without culture can often do more to deserve praise than culture without nature.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

292. “Oh, how great is the power of truth! which of its own power can easily defend itself against all the ingenuity and cunning and wisdom of men, and against the treacherous plots of all the world.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

293. “The searching-out and thorough investigation of truth ought to be the primary study of man.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

294. “The forehead is the gate of the mind.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

295. “A thankful heart is the greatest virtue.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

296. “A mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

297. “Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

298. “That folly of old age which is called dotage is peculiar to silly old men, not to age itself.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

299. “Guilt is present in the very hesitation, even though the deed be not committed.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

300. “We make allowance for necessity.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero