Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Cicero (Roman Philosopher)

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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A community is like the ones who govern it.
Cicero
Topics: Leadership, Influence

To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.
Cicero
Topics: Philosophy

The beginnings of all things are small.
Cicero
Topics: Beginning

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: Confidence, Self-trust, Conscience, Vanity, Miscellaneous

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.
Cicero
Topics: Lies, Deception/Lying

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.
Cicero
Topics: Guilt

All great men are in some degree inspired.
Cicero
Topics: Men

There is in superstition a senseless fear of God.
Cicero
Topics: Superstition

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.
Cicero
Topics: One liners, Wishes

People do not understand what a great revenue economy is.
Cicero
Topics: Economy, Economics

The good of the people is the greatest law.
Cicero
Topics: Law

Give me a young man in whom there is something of the old,
and an old man in whom there is something of the young.
Guided so, a man may grow old in body, but never in mind.
Cicero
Topics: Aging

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

I add this, that rational ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
Cicero
Topics: Ability, Education, Virtue

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

The aim of justice is to give everyone his due.
Cicero
Topics: Justice

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

I follow nature as the surest guide, and resign myself, with implicit obedience, to her sacred ordinances.
Cicero
Topics: Nature

Man’s best support is a very dear friend.
Cicero
Topics: Friendship

Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
Cicero
Topics: Justice

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.
Cicero
Topics: Desire, Praise, Inspiration, Motivation

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
Cicero
Topics: Study, Learning

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

Genius is fostered by industry.
Cicero
Topics: Genius

A man of courage is also full of faith.
Cicero
Topics: Faith, Virtues, Courage, Bravery

Can there be greater foolishness than the respect you pay to people collectively when you despise them individually?
Cicero
Topics: Sincerity

There is something in the nature of things which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannpt effect, and certainly that which produces this must be better than man. What can this be but God?
Cicero
Topics: God

A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.
Cicero
Topics: Will Power, Willpower, Will

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.
Cicero
Topics: Study, Learning

A knowledge of the laws of our country is an highly useful, and I had almost said essential part of liberal and polite education.
Cicero
Topics: Law

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