Marcus Tullius Cicero Cal Quotations

Nature abhors annihilation.

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

A life of peace, purity and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much.

Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.

For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

What gift has providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?

The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

No obligation to do the impossible is binding.

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.

Hatred is inveterate anger.

What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.

Thrift is of great revenue.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

Old age: the crown of life, our play's last act.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

In honorable dealing you should consider what you intended, not what you said or thought.

Liberty consists in the power of doing that which is permitted by the law.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.

Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

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..

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum. (Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.)

Nothing is so swift as calumny, nothing is more easily propagated, nothing more readily credited, nothing more widely circulated.

Work makes a callus against grief.

Please go on, make your threats. I don't like to submit to mere implication.

To live long, live slowly.

Probability is the very guide of life.

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

A home without books is a body without soul.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.

For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

Not cohabitation but consensus constitutes marriage.

The best interpreter of the law is custom.

I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

Before beginning, plan carefully.

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

Laws are silent in time of war.

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

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

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

A careful physician, before he attempts to administer a remedy to his patient, must investigate not only the malady of the man he wishes to cure, but also his habits when in health, and his physical constitution.

For the Stoics do not say that a god is involved with the divisions in a particular liver or particular bird calls (which would be unbefitting, and unworthy of a god, and could not possibly happen); rather, the world was shaped from the beginning in