Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) he lived in the years 106-43 BCE. He was one of the largest, if not the greatest Roman speaker. The promoter of Greek philosophy and politician. Supporter of optimates. He came from an old equestrian family.
- “If only it were as easy to find the truth as it is to detect the lie”
- latin: [Utinam tam facile vera invenire possim quam falsa convincere]
- source: Cicero, De Natura Deorum, I.32
- “Valour abroad is of little use if there is not also wise counsel at home”
- latin: [Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi]
- source: Cicero, De officiis, I.22
- “I have never understood avarice in old men. What could be more absurd than wanting to add more and more baggage to your journey as you draw nearer to its end?”
- latin: [Avaritia vero senilis quid sibi velit, non intellego; potest enim quicquam esse absurdius quam, quo viae minus restet, eo plus viatici quaerere? ]
- source: Cicero, On Old Age, XVIII.66
- “The health of the people should be the supreme law”
- latin: [Salus publica suprema lex esto]
- source: Cicero, Leg., III.8
- “Recall what marches in recent years our generals undertook in Italy through the fields and townships of Roman citizens! Then you will decide more easily on what you think is happening among foreign peoples. Do you believe that in recent years more cities were destroyed through the armed violence of your soldiers or more allied communities through their winter quarters?”
- latin: [Itinera, quae per hosce annos in Italia per agros atque oppida civium Romanorum nostri imperatores fecerint, recordamini: tum facilius statuetis, quid apud exteras nationes fieri existimetis. Utrum plures arbitramini per hosce annos militum vestrorum armis hostium urbes an hibernis sociorum civitates esse deletas?]
- source: Cicero, On Pompey’s Command, 38
- “Unbecoming to a gentleman, too, and vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labour, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery”
- latin: [Illiberales autem et sordidi quaestus mercennariorum omnium, quorum operae, non quorum artes emuntur; est enim in illis ipsa merces auctoramentum servitutis]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, I.150.42
- “Friends share everything”
- latin: [Amicorum omnia sunt communia]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, 16
- “You have good reason to fear that the censor will deal harshly with me – for drinking water”
- description: Cicero’s joke aimed at the censor Lucius Aurelius Cotta, in the company of friends, in 64 CE. Cicero, being thirsty, drank some water when the censor was known for his love of wine.
- source: Plutarch, Cicero, 27
- “Nature has not brought us into the world to act as if we were created for play or jest, but rather for earnestness and for some more serious and important pursuits. We may, of course, indulge in sport and jest, but in the same way as we enjoy sleep or other relaxations, and only when we have satisfied the claims of our earnest, serious tasks”
- latin: [Neque enim ita generati a natura sumus, ut ad ludum et iocum facti esse videamur, ad severitatem potius et ad quaedam studia graviora atque maiora. ludo autem et ioco uti illo quidem licet, sed sicut somno et quietibus ceteris tum, cum gravibus seriisque rebus satis fecerimus]
- source: Cicero, On Duties, I.103
- “But certainly there is nothing better, or more excellent, or more beautiful than the world”
- latin: [Atqui certe nihil omnium rerum melius est mundo, nihil praestantius, nihil pulchrius, nec solum nihil est]
- source: Cicero, De natura deorum, II
- “Problem requiring an Archimedes”
- latin: [πρόβλημα Ἀρχιμήδειον est]
- description: problem difficult to solve
- source: Cicero, Ad Atticum, 12, 4
- “Arguments to be weighed, not counted”
- latin: [Argumenta non numeranda, sed ponderanda sunt]
- source: Cicero, De oratore, II, 76
- “We are slaves of the law so that we may be able to be free”
- latin: [Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus]
- source: Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 53.146
- “For not only is Fortune blind herself, but as a rule she even blinds those whom she has embraced”
- latin: [Non enim solum ipsa fortuna caeca est, sed eos etiam plerumque efficit caecos, quos complexa est]
- source: Cicero, De Amicitia, 54
- “The whole life of philosophers is the meditation of death”
- latin: [Tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est]
- source: Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, II.30
- “Virtue is perfected reason”
- latin: [virtus est perfecta ratio]
- source: Cicero, De legibus, I, 16, 45
- “To conceal is one thing; to be silent is another thing”
- latin: [Aliud est celare, aliud tacere]
- source: Cicero, De officiis, III, 14
- “What he sees frequently causes him no astonishment even though he does not know how it happened. If something happens which he never saw before he considers it a portent”
- latin: [Quod crebro videt non miratur, etiamsi cur fiat nescit. Quod ante non vidit, id si evenerit, ostentum esse censet]
- source: Cicero, De Divinatione, II. 22
- “Nothing can possibly seem expedient that is not morally right”
- latin: [Quod honestum non est, id ne utile quidem]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, 78
- “A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him”
- “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”
- latin: [Equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur]
- source: Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, 15, 17
- “The greatest theater for virtue is conscience”
- latin: [Nullum theatrum virtuti conscientia maiorest]
- source: Cicero, Tusculanarum disputationum omnes, I.64
- “The health of the people should be the supreme law”
- latin: [Salus populi suprema lex]
- source: Cicero, De Legibus, III, III, VIII
- “Nothing is good, except what is honorable, nothing evil, except what is disgraceful”
- latin: [Nihil bonum nisi quod honestum, nihil malum nisi quod turpe]
- source: Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, 10.4.4
- “Good men would prosper and bad men come to grief”
- latin: [Bene bonis, male malis]
- source: Cicero, De Natura Deorum, III, 32, 80
- “Use is the best master”
- latin: [Usus magister est optimus]
- source: Cicero, De Oratore, III
- “Parents are dear, children dear, relations, friends. But our country alone has embraced all the dearest ties of all”
- latin: [Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnium caritates patria una complexa est]
- source: Cicero, De Officiis, I, XVII
- “Other I”
- latin: [Alter ego]
- description: Cicero described this way a friend, who in his opinion is “the greatest of all the g