Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

A home without books is a body without soul.

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know.

A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.

Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

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

Freedom is participation in power.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error

Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere. (No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.)

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

Nemo est qui tibi sapientius suadere possit te ipso: numquam labere, si te audies. ( Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself: if you heed yourself, you'll never go wrong. )

God's law is 'right reason.' When perfectly understood it is called 'wisdom.' When applied by government in regulating human relations it is called 'justice.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.

Ability without honor is useless.

a friend is a second self