Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

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O, the times, O, the customs!

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Against Catilina, Speech One, 63 BCE)

To be ignorant of the past is to forever be a child.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (M. Tulli Ciceronis Orator Ad M. Brutum, 46 BCE)

To each his own.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On the Laws)

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On Friendship, 44 BCE)

I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (De Oratore - Book III, 55 BCE)

We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (De Divinatione, 44 BCE)

We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (De Divinatione, 44 BCE)

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Ulpianus, Digesta)

As a philosopher, I have a right to ask for a rational explanation of religious faith.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The beginnings of all things are small.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On Duties, 44 BCE)

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Epistulae ad Familiares, 62 - 43 BCE)

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Philippics, 43 - 44 BCE)

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Pro Plancio, 54 BCE)

A war is never undertaken by the ideal State, except in defense of its honor or its safety.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On the Commonwealth, 54 - 51 BCE)

No one is so old as to think he cannot live one more year.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (De Senectute, 44 BCE)

While there's life, there's hope.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Letters to Atticus, 68 - 43 BCE)

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Ulpianus, Digesta)

Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, 45 BCE)

We are not born for ourselves alone.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On Duties, 44 BCE)

Genius is fostered by energy.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Paulus)

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On Friendship, 44 BCE)

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

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Tusculan Disputations, 45 BCE)

A room without books is like a body without a soul.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The good of the people is the greatest law.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On The Laws)

Let the punishment match the offense.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On The Laws)

I am never less alone than when alone.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (On Duties, 44 BCE)

Law stands mute in the midst of arms.
Variant: In a time of war, the law falls silent.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (Pro Milone: Speech in defense of Titus Annius Milo, 52 BCE)

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