Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicerowas a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and was one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionStatesman
philosopher absurd said
Nothing is too absurd to be said by some of the philosophers.
hands age body
A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.
two way violence
There are two ways to resolve conflicts, through violence or through negotiation. Violence is for wild beasts, negotiation is for human beings.
fire water use
Fire and water are not of more universal use than friendship.
sky might sun
You might as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life: for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.
men tyrants giving
For out of such an ungoverned populace one is usually chosen as a leader, someone bold and unscrupulous who curries favor with the people by giving them other men's property. To such a man the protection of public office is given, and continually renewed. He emerges as a tyrant over the very people who raised him to power.
journey absurd increase
The avarice of the old: it's absurd to increase one's luggage as one nears the journey's end.
purpose students tyranny
The purpose of education is to free the student from the tyranny of the present.
home littles prudent
Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home
men disposition merciful
Nothing is more praiseworthy, nothing more suited to a great and illustrious man than placability and a merciful disposition.
men enemy
A man has no enemy worse than himself.
lying philosophical light
All literature, all philosophical treatises, all the voices of antiquity are full of examples for imitation, which would all lie unseen in darkness without the light of literature..
wings ease flight
There is nothing which wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing disbursed more widely.
desire thirst filled
The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.