Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer, and philosopher. He was a member of the Roman Senate, and a friend and follower of General Pompey the Great, who was Julius Caesar’s nemesis.
Cicero was also one of the most prolific and versatile of Latin orators and authors. He founded a model for Latin prose; his surviving works include speeches, treatises on rhetoric, philosophical works, and letters. Many of his rhetorical devices are still used by public speakers today.
Born in Arpinum (now Arpino,) central Italy, Cicero was educated in Rome and learned rhetoric and oratory in Athens and Rhodes. He worked as a defense lawyer at first and was then elected to serve in the Roman Senate together with Julius Caesar.
Cicero foresaw that Rome was in its final years, threatened by civil wars, and by the régime of Julius Caesar, and the triumvirates that succeeded him. Cicero tried to bolster the Roman Republic by subduing an uprising by Senator Catiline. As a political counsel, Cicero put the conspirators to death at once without giving them the right to a fair trial because he believed that the Republic was in danger. This move earned him many political enemies.
Later, Cicero was left out of the plot to kill Julius Caesar. However, when Cicero defended that murder in the interests of the Republic, he was forced into retirement from public life.
Cicero went on exile and wrote several philosophical works. He was known for his eloquence and incisive written dialogues—notably De Legibus (On the Laws, c.52–43 BCE,) Consolatio (On Grief and Consolation, 45 BCE,) Laelius de Amicitia (Laelius on Friendship, 44 BCE,) De Officiis (On Duties, 44 BCE) and De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods, 45 BCE.)
In the Philippics (43 BCE,) Cicero attacked Mark Antony, who, later on, had Cicero hunted down and beheaded. When Cicero’s head was taken back to Mark Antony, his wife Fulvia pulled out Cicero’s tongue and stabbed it with her golden hairpins in vengeance against Cicero’s power of speech.
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The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
—Cicero
Topics: Learning, Education, Reason
What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
—Cicero
Topics: One liners, Wishes
The eyes like sentinel occupy the highest place in the body.
—Cicero
Topics: Eyes
Nothing is more intolerable than a prosperous fool; and hence we see men who, at one time, were affable and agreeable, completely changed by prosperity, despising old friends and clinging to new.
—Cicero
Topics: Fools
The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship
A sensual and intemperate youth translates into an old worn-out body.
—Cicero
Topics: Youth
Courage is the virtue which champions the cause of right.
—Cicero
Topics: Courage
The mansion should not be graced by its master, the master should grace the mansion.
—Cicero
Topics: Confidence
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
—Cicero
Topics: Reflection
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
—Cicero
Topics: Peace
Not to be covetous, is money; not to be a purchaser, is a revenue.
—Cicero
Topics: Economy
Loyalty is what we seek in friendship.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship
To those who are engaged in commercial dealings, justice is indispensable for the conduct of business.
—Cicero
Topics: Business, Age, Sin
Reason should direct and appetite obey.
—Cicero
Topics: Reason, Appetite
If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.
—Cicero
Topics: Realistic Expectations, Defects, Ambition, Acceptance, Goals
Victory is by nature insolent and haughty.
—Cicero
Topics: Victory
Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship, Usefullness, Friends and Friendship
Great is the power, great is the authority of a senate that is unanimous in its opinions.
—Cicero
Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man’s life.
—Cicero
Topics: Goodness
Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
—Cicero
Topics: Time Management, Adversity, Time
Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.
—Cicero
Topics: Eloquence, Brevity
The sinews of war, a limitless supply of money.
—Cicero
Topics: War
Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.
—Cicero
Topics: Fame, Virtue
Hatreds not vowed and concealed are to be feared more than those openly declared.
—Cicero
Topics: Hate, Hatred
It is not only arrogant, but profligate, for a man to disregard the world’s opinion of himself.
—Cicero
Topics: Opinion
Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.
—Cicero
Topics: Habits, Habit
Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.
—Cicero
Topics: Fear
The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.
—Cicero
Topics: Law
To live long it is necessary to live slowly.
—Cicero
Topics: Moderation, Criticism, Living
As the laws are above magistrates, so are the magistrates above the people: and it may truly be said, that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law a silent magistrate.
—Cicero
Topics: Law
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