Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

El pasado es también el presente y el futuro. La nación que olvida está pérdida.

It is not merriment and wantonness, nor laughter or jesting, the comrade of frivolity, that make men happy; those are happy, often in sadness, whose wills are strong and true.

Salus populi suprema est lex [the good of the people is the chief law].

Mine is the disaster, if disaster there be; and to be severely distressed at one's own misfortunes does not show that you love your friend, but that you love yourself.

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? (When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?)

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.

This shows how a man who practices exercise and self-control can preserve some of his original vigor even when he grows old.

We are born for justice, and . . . what is just is based, not on opinion, but on nature.

As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.

The purpose of education is to free the student from the tyranny of the present.

Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum.

non deterret sapientem mors.

My conscience has more weight for me than the opinion of the whole world

The course of life cannot change. Nature has but a single path and you travel it only once. Each stage of life has its own appropriate qualities—weakness in childhood, boldness in youth, seriousness in middle age, and maturity in old age. These are fruits that must be harvested in due season.

Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit. (If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.)

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

Das also ist keine Freundschaft, dass, wenn der eine die Wahrheit nicht hören will, der andere zum Lügen bereit ist.

Cuando un pueblo está decidido a ser esclavo y se halla degradado, es una locura tratar de animar de nuevo en él el espíritu de orgullo y honor, de libertad y amor a las leyes, pues abraza con entusiasmo sus cadenas con tal que lo alimenten sin ningún esfuerzo por su parte.

Utinam tam facile vera invenire possim quam falsa convincere.

Loquor enim de docto homine et erudito, cui vivere est cogitare

a distinction has gradually sprung up between what is expedient and what is right. But the implication that something can be right without being expedient, or expedient without being right, is the most pernicious error that could possibly be introduced into human life.

En un mot, nos mains tâchent de faire dans la nature, pour ainsi dire, une autre nature.

En política sólo puedes estar seguro de una cosa, de que jamás puedes estar seguro de nada