Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicerowas a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and was one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionStatesman
Marcus Tullius Cicero quotes about
journey absurd increase
The avarice of the old: it's absurd to increase one's luggage as one nears the journey's end.
justice injustice prison
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
selfishness virtue difficult
It is difficult to persuade mankind that the love of virtue is the love of themselves.
war philosophical law
Laws are silent in time of war.
dog stupid boys
A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?
life-is-short space long
For even if the allotted space of life be short, it is long enough in which to live honorably and well.
friendship favors vices
Friendship is given us by nature, not to favor vice, but to aid virtue.
soul ambitious body
A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within....for the traitor appears not to be a traitor...he rots the soul of a nation...he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
knowledge justice may
Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
power opinion authority
Great is the power, great is the authority of a senate that is unanimous in its opinions.
philosophical power republic
In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.
learning waiting mind
Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.
moving-on broken-heart heartbreak
It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
law serious causes
The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong