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
promise said motive
In a promise, what you thought, and not what you said, is always to be considered.
moments duty
There is not a moment without some duty.
ornaments modesty maximum
He takes the greatest ornament from friendship, who takes modesty from it. [Lat., Maximum ornamentum amicitiae tollit, qui ex ea tollit verecudiam.]
mistake men may
Any man may make a mistake; none but a fool will stick to it. Second thoughts are best as the proverb says. [Lat., Cujusvis hominis est errare; nullius, nisi insipientis, in errore perseverae. Posteriores enim cogitationes (ut aiunt) sapientiores solent esse.]
learning men age
Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving as an ornament to riches.
horse laughter laughing
Though laughter is allowable, a horse-laugh is abominable.
book heart men
This, therefore, is a law not found in books, but written on the fleshly tablets of the heart, which we have not learned from man, received or read, but which we have caught up from Nature herself, sucked in and imbibed; the knowledge of which we were not taught, but for which we were made; we received it not by education, but by intuition.
hands sensual age
A sensual and intemperate youth hands over a worn-out body to old age. [Lat., Libidinosa etenim et intemperans adolescentiam effoetum corpus tradit senectuti.]
insincerity disgraceful
Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.
men pay guilty
That man is guilty of impertinence who considers not the circumstances of time, or engrosses the conversation, or makes himself the subject of his discourse, or pays no regard to the company he is in.
art memories believe
When I consider the wonderful activity of the mind, so great a memory of what is past, and such a capacity of penetrating into the future: when I behold such a number of arts and sciences, and such a multitude of discoveries hence arising,--I believe and am firmly persuaded that a nature which contains so many things within itself cannot be mortal.
hope sick there-is-hope
To the sick, while there is life there is hope. [Lat., Aegroto dum anima est, spes est.]
hatred
Hatred is a settled anger.
grief hair sorrow
It is foolish to pluck out one's hair for sorrow, as if grief could be assuaged by baldness. [Lat., Stultum est in luctu capillum sibi evellere, quasi calvito maeror levaretur.]