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.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Cicero
The safety of the people shall be the highest law
—Cicero
Topics: Safety
The way to avoid the imputation of impudence is, not to be ashamed of what we do, but never to do what we ought to be ashamed of.
—Cicero
They condemn what they do not understand.
—Cicero
Topics: Criticism, Critics
Taxes are the sinews of the state.
—Cicero
Topics: Taxes
Let every man practice the art that he knows best.
—Cicero
Topics: Work
Rashness is the characteristic of ardent youth, and prudence that of mellowed age.
—Cicero
All great men are in some degree inspired.
—Cicero
Topics: Men
The greatest incitement to guilt is the hope of sinning with impunity.
—Cicero
Topics: Guilt
Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.
—Cicero
Topics: Knowledge
Let a man practice the profession which he best knows.
—Cicero
Topics: Career
A perverse temper, and a discontented, fretful disposition, wherever they prevail, render any state of life unhappy.
—Cicero
Topics: Unhappiness, Discontent
A mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.
—Cicero
Topics: Mind
Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?
—Cicero
Topics: Thrift
Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other but in our imagination.
—Cicero
Topics: Virtue
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.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship, Friends
Can there be greater foolishness than the respect you pay to people collectively when you despise them individually?
—Cicero
Topics: Sincerity
No one is so old as to think he cannot live one more year.
—Cicero
Topics: Age
Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.
—Cicero
Topics: Advice
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
—Cicero
Topics: Peace
There is no opinion so absurd but that some philosopher will express it.
—Cicero
Hatred is inveterate anger.
—Cicero
Topics: Hate, Hatred
He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.
—Cicero
Topics: Leisure, Rest
The man who commands efficiently must have
obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys
dutifully is worthy of being some day a commander.
—Cicero
Topics: Service
The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
—Cicero
Topics: Welfare
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.
—Cicero
Topics: Hypocrisy
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.
—Cicero
Topics: Goodness, Helping
Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving as an ornament to riches.
—Cicero
Topics: Learning
The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.
—Cicero
Topics: Desire
It is a great thing to know our vices.
—Cicero
Topics: Vice
What is becoming in behavior is honorable, and what is honorable is becoming.
—Cicero
Topics: Behavior
Victory is by nature insolent and haughty.
—Cicero
Topics: Victory
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.
—Cicero
Topics: Soul
To those who are engaged in commercial dealings, justice is indispensable for the conduct of business.
—Cicero
Topics: Sin, Business, Age
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience.
—Cicero
Topics: Vanity, Miscellaneous, Conscience, Confidence, Self-trust
Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual good-will and affection.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.
—Cicero
Topics: Health
We all are imbued with the love of praise.
—Cicero
Topics: Praise
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.
—Cicero
Topics: Conversation
There are limits to the indulgence which friendship allows.
—Cicero
Topics: Courtesy, Friendship
The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.
—Cicero
Topics: Moderation
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