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
I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.
—Cicero
Topics: Criticism
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
—Cicero
Topics: Nature, Death
We are all excited by the love of praise, and it is the noblest spirits that feel it most.
—Cicero
Topics: Praise
It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.
—Cicero
Topics: Adversity, Sorrow
Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual good-will and affection.
—Cicero
Topics: Friendship
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
—Cicero
Topics: Justice
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
—Cicero
Topics: Gratitude, Appreciation, Blessings
A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.
—Cicero
A home without books is a body without soul.
—Cicero
It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.
—Cicero
Topics: Fools
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.
—Cicero
Topics: Health
Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
—Cicero
Topics: Friends and Friendship, Friendship
The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.
—Cicero
Topics: Duty
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.
—Cicero
Topics: Money
Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?
—Cicero
Topics: Thrift
For of all gainful professions, nothing is better, nothing more pleasing, nothing more delightful, nothing better becomes a well-bred man than agriculture.
—Cicero
Whatever is graceful is virtuous, and whatever is virtuous is graceful.
—Cicero
Topics: Grace
To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.
—Cicero
Topics: Books
It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post.
—Cicero
True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrong-doing by its prohibitions. And it does not lay its commands or prohibitions upon good men in vain, though neither have any effect on the wicked. It is a sin to try to to sic alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely. We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it. And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is, God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator, and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst penalties, even if he escapes what is commonly considered punishment.
—Cicero
Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
—Cicero
Topics: Brevity
As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.
—Cicero
I am a Roman citizen.
—Cicero
Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.
—Cicero
Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.
—Cicero
Topics: Time, Time Management, Adversity
In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.
—Cicero
Topics: Health
The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.
—Cicero
Advice is judged by results, not by intention.
—Cicero
Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.
—Cicero
Topics: Fame, Virtue
It is a truth but too well known, that rashness attends youth, as prudence does old age.
—Cicero
Topics: Youth
What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might.
—Cicero
Topics: Dedication, Commitment, Enthusiasm
Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.
—Cicero
Friends are proved by adversity.
—Cicero
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Philosophy, rightly defined, is simply the love of wisdom.
—Cicero
Topics: One liners, Philosophy
Let flattery, the handmaid of the vices, be far removed.
—Cicero
Topics: Flattery
Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.
—Cicero
Topics: Power
The roots of knowledge are bitter, but its fruit are sweet.
—Cicero
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