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Marcus Tullius Cicero

88 quotes

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer, and philosopher who is widely considered one of Rome's greatest speakers and prose stylists. His writings on politics, law, and philosophy deeply influenced the development of European languages and ideas about republican government.

“It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Great

All Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Education

“What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship

“The more laws, the less justice.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Legal

“To some extent I liken slavery to death.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Death

“A home without books is a body without soul.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Home

“Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nature

“There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Men

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nature

“If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Good

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Age

“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.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Men

“The best interpreter of the law is custom.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Best

“The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship

“Hatred is settled anger.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Anger

“The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Experience

“Rashness belongs to youth prudence to old age.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Age

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Money

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Friendship

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Men

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

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Nature