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
believe oratory gains
Nothing is so difficult to believe that oratory cannot make it acceptable, nothing so rough and uncultured as not to gain brilliance and refinement from eloquence.
gains nerves strain
Strain every nerve to gain your point.
gains morality ill
Ill gotten gains will be ill spent.
ignorance men gains
No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.
believe gains action
What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.
fortune tests
The shifts of fortune tests the reliability of friends
experience injury knew running
The whole injury experience was so frustrating. I knew if I could get back I would never take running for granted,
born earlier events happened ignorant lifetime memory past stupidity unless woven
To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?
born earlier events happened ignorant life lifetime memory past unless woven
To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child. For what is man's lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?
against proverbial stone stumble twice
To stumble twice against the same stone is a proverbial disgrace.
careful far ill speaking words
We should be as careful of our words as of our actions, and as far from speaking ill as from doing ill
attack basis personal speech
We must make a personal attack when there is no argumentative basis for our speech
consists decency giving justice
Justice consists of doing no one injury, decency in giving no one offense.
foolish hair less sorrow tear though
It is foolish to tear one's hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less with baldness.