Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
Wisdom is the only thing which can relieve us from the sway of the passions and the fear of danger, and which can teach us to bear the injuries of fortune itself with moderation, and which shows us all the ways which lead to tranquility and peace.
CICERO, The Academic Questions: Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations of M. T. Cicero
The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.
CICERO, attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Tomorrow will give some food for thought.
CICERO, Epistolæ Ad Atticum
Religion is not removed by removing superstition.
CICERO, De Divinatione
Man has been born for two things--thinking and acting; to think is to live.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
There is in superstition a senseless fear of God; religion consists in the pious worship of Him.
CICERO, De Natura Deorum
He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
There is nothing more painful than dishonor, nothing more vile than slavery; we have been born for the enjoyment of honor and liberty; let us either retain these or die with dignity.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
It is as hard for the good to suspect evil as it is for the bad to suspect good.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.
CICERO, De Officiis
In the management of most things, slowness and procrastination are hateful.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
I shall always consider the best guesser the best prophet.
CICERO, De Divinatione
All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.
CICERO, "On Standing for the Consulship", The Treatises of M. T. Cicero
No liberal man would impute a charge of unsteadiness to another for having changed his opinion.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
He who obeys with modesty appears worthy of being some day a commander.
CICERO, De Legibus
Man's mind is nurtured by study and meditation.
CICERO, On Duties
The comfort derived from the misery of others is slight.
CICERO, Epistles
Modesty is that feeling by which honorable shame acquires a valuable and lasting authority.
CICERO, Rhetorical Invention
Endless money forms the sinews of war.
CICERO, Philippics
It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as if grief could be lessened by baldness.
CICERO, Tusculan Disputations
Think not that guilt requires the burning torches of the Furies to agitate and torment it; their own frauds, their crimes, their remembrances of the past, their terrors of the future are ever present to their minds.
CICERO, Three Books of Offices: Or Moral Duties
Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.
CICERO, Tusculanarum Disputationum
Nothing that is obtained through guilt can be permanently profitable.
CICERO, anonymous, Day's Collacon
The generous and liberal man doth daily seek out occasions to put his virtue in practice.
CICERO, attributed, Day's Collacon
The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.
CICERO, Tusculanarum Disputationum
The illustrious and noble ought to place before them certain rules and regulations, not less for their hours of leisure and relaxation than for those of business.