Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might.

Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.

A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.

Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.

We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.

Hours and days and months and years go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time gives us in which we live, we should therefore be content.

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

Sed nescio quo modo nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosphorum. (There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.)

To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.

Dogs wait for us faithfully.

Cultivation of the mind is as necessary as food to the body

Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.

A man of faith is also full of courage

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever

In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people.

A mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.