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
nature mistake philosophical
It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.
lying men giving
All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.
enough acquire
It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.
military phases-of-life phases
No phase of life, whether public or private, can be free from duty.
dog stupid boys
A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?
favour injury regard
Favours out of place I regard as positive injuries.
character reflection dexterity
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
philosophical power republic
In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.
life trust confidence
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
art men blood
All the arts, which have a tendency to raise man in the scale of being, have a certain common band of union, and are connected, if I may be allowed to say so, by blood-relationship with one another.
memories philosophical intriguing
Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.
law injustice strict-laws
Strict law is often great injustice.
memories past trouble
The memory of past troubles is pleasant. [Lat., Jucunda memoria est praeteritorum malorum.]
inspirational life memories
The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.