Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings

Age nunc, refer animum, sis, ad veritatem, [...].

Non nobis solum nati sumus.

As you wisely said, Scipio, a true republic can exist only when the citizens consent to be bound together under the law. The monstrosity you describe surely deserves the name of tyranny just as much as if it were a single person. Actually, it is even worse, for there is nothing more despicable than a government that falsely assumes the appearance and the name of .

In Cicero's time the left and the right wing in ethical philosophy were represented by the Epicureans and the Stoics respectively, while the Peripatetics held a middle ground.

A hatred not shown and which remains concealed, is to be feared more than that which is openly voiced.

A good country does not begin a war except to defend its honor or to protect itself. ... Wars are unjust if they are undertaken without cause. Only a war waged in retaliation or defense can be considered just. ... No war is honorable unless it is announced and declared or it is for the recovery of property.

It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow-men; of considerateness , not to wound their feelings; and in this the essence of propriety is best seen.

But of all the bonds of fellowship, there is none more noble, none more powerful than when good men of congenial character are joined in intimate friendship.

Turpis autem fuga mortis omni est morte pejor.

Magistratum legem esse loquentem, legem autem mutum magistratum

But since the resources of individuals are small, while the multitude of those who need them is unbounded

they follow nature as the most perfect guide to a good life. Now

its underlying principles are in such close harmony with the absolute and eternal right that they can never become obsolete. At the same time, the division and arrangement of the treatise give it, so far as I know, the precedence over all other ethical treatises ancient or modern.

Breve tempus ætatis satis est longum ad bene honesteque vivendum

The extreme of right is the extreme of wrong.

Gut ist, was den Guten gefällt.

If you have a garden in your library, nothing will fail

Tum enim dixit duo corpora esse rei publicae, unum debile infirmo capite, alterum firmum sine capite.

I do not understand what the man who is happy wants in order to be happier.

all that I can do is to urge you to put friendship before all things human; for nothing is so conformable to nature and nothing so adaptable to our fortunes whether they be favourable or adverse.

The egoist loves himself without rivals.

See, says he, you who deny a providence, how many have been saved by their prayers to the Gods. Ay, says Diagoras, I see those who were saved, but where are those painted who were shipwrecked

for in history there is nothing more pleasing than clear and brilliant brevity.