Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

A letter does not blush.

We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.

If only every man would make proper use of his strength and do his utmost, he need never regret his limited ability.

Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving as an ornament to riches.

Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man's life.

An old man with something of the youth in him, may feel young in mind and heart only.

It is besides necessary that whoever is brave should be a man of great soul.

No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.

That which is usually called dotage is not the weak point of all old men, but only of such as are distinguished by their levity.

In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honor, command, power, and glory.

Nothing is more praiseworthy, nothing more suited to a great and illustrious man than placability and a merciful disposition.

If a man could mount to Heaven and survey the mighty universe, his admiration of its beauties would be much diminished unless he had someone to share in his pleasure.

No sensible man ever imputes inconsistency to another for changing his minds.

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.

The gardener plants trees, not one berry of which he will ever see: and shall not a public man plant laws, institutions, government, in short, under the same conditions?

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.

Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men. [Lat., Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando.]