Marcus Tullius Cicero Men Quotations

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

If I err in belief that the souls of men are immortal, I gladly err, nor do I wish this error which gives me pleasure to be wrested from me while I live.

Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.

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

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes.

Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.

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

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

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.

A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him.

We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children?

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

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

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

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

Men do not realize how great a revenue economy is

I swear I would rather be wrong with Plato than see the truth with men like these.

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; the beasts, by nature.

In nothing do men approach so nearly to the Gods, as in giving health to men.

In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in doing good to their fellow men

The minds of men do in the weather share, dark or serene as it's foul or fair

If I err in my belief that the souls of men are immortal, I err gladly, and do not wish to lose so delightful an error

No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted.

No man can be brave who thinks pain the greatest evil; nor temperate, who considers pleasure the highest good.

A man would have no pleasures in discovering all the beauties of the universe, even in heaven itself, unless he had a partner to whom he might communicate his joys.

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.

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.

No wise man has called a change of opinion in constancy.

The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.

The more virtuous any man is, the less easily does he suspect others to be vicious.

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.

Look closely at these self-evident truths, these imperishable articles of American Faith upon which all our government is firmly based. First and foremost is the existence of God. Next comes the truth that all men are equal in the sight of God. Third is the fact of God's great gift of unalienable rights to every person on earth. Then follows the true and single purpose of all American Government, namely, to preserve and protect these God-made rights of God-made man.

In ancient times music was the foundation of all the sciences. Education was begun with music with the persuasion that nothing could be expected of a man who was ignorant of music.

Friendship is nothing else than entire fellow feeling as to all things human and divine with mutual good-will and affection; and I doubt whether anything better than this, wisdom alone excepted, has been given to man.

Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age?

Cicero is dead! Cicero is born! The laughter has filled me, filled me so very completely. I am the laughter. I am the jester. The soul that has served as my constant companion for so long has breached the veil of the Void finally and forever. It is now in me. It is me. The world has seen the last of Cicero the man. Behold Cicero, Fool of Hearts - laughter incarnate!

What is so beneficial to the people as liberty, which we see not only to be greedily sought after by men, but also by beasts, and to be prepared in all things.

The wise man knows nothing if he cannot benefit from his wisdom. Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but also to be utilized.

Man is his own worst enemy.

Nature has inclined us to love men.

In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honor, command, power, and glory.

It is the act of a bad man to deceive by falsehood.

If only every man would make proper use of his strength and do his utmost, he need never regret his limited ability.

If a man could mount to Heaven and survey the mighty universe, his admiration of its beauties would be much diminished unless he had someone to share in his pleasure.

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.

No sensible man ever imputes inconsistency to another for changing his minds.

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.

Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man's life.

The celestial order and the beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being, who deserves the respect and homage of men

When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.

Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another.

Crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but by the bad intentions of men.

. . . for until that God who rules all the region of the sky . . . has freed you from the fetters of your body, you cannot gain admission here. Men were created with the understanding that they were to look after that sphere called Earth, which you see in the middle of the temple. Minds have been given to them out of the eternal fires you call fixed stars and planets, those spherical solids which, quickened with divine minds, journey through their circuits and orbits with amazing speed.

For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than #‎ agriculture

No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.

Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!

An agreement of rash men (a conspiracy).

The men who administer public affairs must first of all see that everyone holds onto what is his, and that private men are never deprived of their goods by public men.

The gardener plants trees, not one berry of which he will ever see: and shall not a public man plant laws, institutions, government, in short, under the same conditions?

Too much liberty leads both men and nations to slavery.

Let a man practice the profession which he best knows.

Any man can make a mistake; only a fool keeps making the same one.

Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger.

A man has no worse enemy than himself.

Nothing is more becoming in a great man than courtesy and forbearance

The more peculiarly his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Men do not realize how great an income thrift is.

Aristoteles quidem ait: 'Omnes ingeniosos melancholicos esse.' Aristotle says that all men of genius are melancholy.

Dissimulation creeps gradually into the minds of men.

He is an eloquent man who can treat humble subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.

As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the mind is eloquence.

By Hercules! I prefer to err with Plato, whom I know how much you value, than to be right in the company of such men.

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.

A man does not wonder at what he sees frequently, even though he be ignorant of the reason. If anything happens which he has not seen before, he calls it a prodigy.

Men ought to be most annoyed by the sufferings which come from their own faults.

It is fortune, not wisdom, that rules man's life.

For every man's nature is concealed with many folds of disguise, and covered as it were with various veils. His brows, his eyes, and very often his countenance, are deceitful, and his speech is most commonly a lie.

It is difficult to tell how much men's minds are conciliated by a kind manner and gentle speech.

Plato divinely calls pleasure the bait of evil, inasmuch as men are caught by it as fish by a hook.

He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men.

A good man will not lie, although it be for his profit.

Can you also, Lucullus, affirm that there is any power united with wisdom and prudence which has made, or, to use your own expression, manufactured man? What sort of a manufacture is that? Where is it exercised? when? why? how?

I know that it is likely that as worship of the gods declines, faith between men and all human society will disappear, as well as that most excellent of all virtues, which is justice.

Nature ordains that a man should wish the good of every man, whoever he may be, for this very reason that he is a man.

To reduce man to the duties of his own city, and to disengage him from duties to the members of other cities, is to break the universal society of the human race.

Quacks pretend to cure other men's disorders, but fail to find a remedy for their own.

It is a strong proof of men knowing most things before birth, that when mere children they grasp innumerable facts with such speed as to show that they are not then taking them in for the first time, but are remembering and recalling them.

Death is dreadful to the man whose all is extinguished with his life; but not to him whose glory never can die.

Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it.

Prudence must not be expected from a man who is never sober. [Lat., Non est ab homine nunquam sobrio postulanda prudentia.]

Men in no way approach so nearly to the gods as in doing good to men. [Lat., Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt, quam salutem hominibus dando.]