Quotes from Marcus Tullius Cicero

I would rather be wrong with Plato than right with such men as these [the Pythagoreans].

The aim of forensic oratory is to teach, to delight, to move.

The dregs of Romulus.

Let arms yield to the toga, the laurel crown to praise.

What is more agreeable than one's home?

Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and to place it in cities, and even to introduce it into homes and compel it to inquire about life and standards and goods and evils.

O tempora! O mores! [Oh the times! The customs!]

The sinews of war are infinite money.

There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it.

Never less idle than when wholly idle, nor less alone than when wholly alone.

It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.

Let the punishment match the offense.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

These studies are a spur to the young, a delight to the old; an ornament in prosperity, a consoling refuge in adversity; they are pleasure for us at home, and no burden abroad; they stay up with us at night, they accompany us when we travel, they are with us in our country visits.

Rashness belongs to youth prudence to old age.

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

It was ordained at the beginning of the world that certain signs should prefigure certain events.

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

He used to raise a storm in a teapot.

Thrift is of great revenue.