Best 96 Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes on life, freedom, and peace

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Find here some motivational Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes on reading, books, life motivation, growth, law, freedom, and peace.

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Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and Academic Skeptic. He tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order and served as consul in 63 BC.

His writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy, and politics. Cicero is considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists. You can read more about him on Wikipedia.

Best Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

1. “Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

2. “I criticize by creation, not by finding fault.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

3. “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

4. “If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

5. “Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

6. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

7. “The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

8. “Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

9. “Politicians are not born; they are excreted.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

10. “The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

11. “The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

12. “Freedom is participation in power.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Inspirational Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

13. “The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

14. “Ability without honor is useless.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

15. “To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

16. “A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

17. “Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

18. “Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

19. “A man of faith is also full of courage.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

20. “Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

21. “A mental stain can neither be blotted out by the passage of time nor washed away by any waters.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

22. “The mind becomes accustomed to things by the habitual sight of them, and neither wonders nor inquires about the reasons for things it sees all the time.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

23. “Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

24. “The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Famous Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

25. “Wisdom is the only thing which can banish sorrow from the breast.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

26. “Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

27. “Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

28. “A man of courage is also full of faith.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

29. “The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

30. “What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

31. “The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

32. “What is permissible is not always honorable.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

33. “Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

34. “All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will, without doubt, be brief.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

35. “Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes about friend

36. “The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

37. “Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

38. “Life is nothing without friendship.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

39. “Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

40. “Never injure a friend, even in jest.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

41. “A friend is a second self.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

42. “The reward of friendship is friendship itself.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

43. “Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

44. “Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Read more Friendship Motivational Quotes

Reading Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

45. “Read at every wait, read at all hours, read within leisure, read in times of labor, read as one goes in, read as one goes out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

46. “The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

47. “When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men’s [children’s] minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes on Books

48. “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

49. “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

50. “For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart, and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

51. “Books: our unfailing companions.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Life Motivation Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

52. “The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

53. “While there’s life, there’s hope.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

54. “The life of the dead is placed on the memories of the living. The love you gave in life keeps people alive beyond their time. Anyone who was given love will always live on in another’s heart.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

55. “A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

56. “Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

57. “Kindness is stronger than fear.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

58. “The good life is impossible without a good state, and there is no greater blessing than a well-ordered state.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

59. “To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Growth Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

60. “It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

61. “We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

62. “It is a great thing to know your vices.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

63. “I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

64. “A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

65. “Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

66. “To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

67. “It is our own evil thoughts which madden us.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

68. “Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

69. “Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

70. “Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

71. “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

72. “Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

73. “When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

74. “To live is to think.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

75. “The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

76. “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

77. “Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

78. “We forget our pleasures, we remember our sufferings.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Law Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

79. “Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

80. “Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

81. “We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

82. “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 wrongdoing by its prohibitions.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

83. “The welfare of the people is the highest law.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

84. “The closer the collapse of the Empire, the crazier its laws are.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

85. “More law, less justice.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

86. “The good of the people is the greatest law.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

87. “Laws are silent in time of war.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

88. “Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Freedom Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

89. “Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

90. “Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

91. “Freedom will bite back more fiercely when suspended than when she remains undisturbed.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

92. “What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

93. “Freedom is a man’s natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force of law.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

Peace Quotes by Marcus Tullius Cicero

94. “An unjust peace is better than a just war.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

95. “Peace is liberty in tranquillity.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

96. “The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

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