Quotes by Cicero

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.

Let your desires be ruled by reason.
(Appetitus Rationi Pareat)

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

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.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

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.

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

Our thoughts are free.

Reason should direct and appetite obey.

Strain every nerve to gain your point.

Such praise coming from so degraded a source, was degrading to me, its recipient.

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

The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.

The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.

The man who backbites an absent friend, nay, who does not stand up for him when another blames him, the man who angles for bursts of laughter and for the repute of a wit, who can invent what he never saw, who cannot keep a secret - that man is black at heart: mark and avoid him.