Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero


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It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.


What gift has providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?


Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.


If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.


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.


What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.


More law, less justice.


Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything.


A friend is, as it were, a second self.


Peace is liberty in tranquillity.


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


The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.


A man of courage is also full of faith.


Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.


The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.


What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.


The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.


Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world.


The safety of the people shall be the highest law.


Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.