Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

A sensual and intemperate youth hands over a worn-out body to old age. [Lat., Libidinosa etenim et intemperans adolescentiam effoetum corpus tradit senectuti.]

Inhumanity is harmful in every age. - Inhumanitas omni aetate molesta est

In anger nothing right nor judicious can be done.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

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

Ability without honor is useless.

The happiest end of life is this: when the mind and the other senses being unimpaired, the same nature which put it together takes asunder her own work.

If the soul has food for study and learning, nothing is more delightful than an old age of leisure.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.

When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.

All the arts of refinement have mutual kinship.

Because all the sick do not recover, therefore medicine is not an art.

There is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

Leisure consists in all those virtuous activities by which a man grows morally, intellectually, and spiritually. It is that which makes a life worth living.

The devil finds work for idle hands to do. Better to reign in the hell than serve in heaven. We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free.

Let every man practice the art that he knows best.

Work makes a callus against grief.

The illustrious and noble ought to place before them certain rules and regulations, not less for their hours of leisure and relaxation than for those of business.

My precept to all who build, is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.