Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

A wise man does nothing by constraint.

If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.

Every man's friend is no man's friend.

Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one.

A man has no enemy worse than himself.

The wise man never loses his temper.

No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.

Let a man practise the profession he best knows. [Lat., Quam quisque novit artem, in hac se exerceat.]

I will adhere to the counsels of good men, although misfortune and death should be the consequence.

A good man will not lie, although it be for his profit.

What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be prepared in all things.

That folly of old age which is called dotage is peculiar to silly old men, not to age itself.

Aristoteles quidem ait: 'Omnes ingeniosos melancholicos esse.' Aristotle says that all men of genius are melancholy.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

For nothing is more commendable, nothing more becoming in a preeminently great man than courtesy and forbearance.

Who can love the man he fears. or by who he thinks he is himself feared?

The man who is always fortunate cannot easily have a great reverence for virtue.

An innocent man, if accused, can be acquitted; a guilty man, unless accused, cannot be condemned. It is, however, more advantageous to absolve an innocent than not to prosecute a guilty man.

When trying a case [the famous judge] L. Cassius never failed to inquire "Who gained by it?" Man's character is such that no one undertakes crimes without hope of gain.

Nothing is so secure as that money will not defeat it.

That he who hath the loan of money has not repaid it, and he who has repaid has not the loan; but he who has acknowledged a kindness has it still, and he who has a feeling of it has requited it.

The sinews of war are infinite money.

Not to be covetous, is money; not to be a purchaser, is a revenue.