Marcus Tullius Cicero

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

The more laws, the less justice.

There is no one who can give you wiser advice than you can give yourself: you will never make a slip, if you listen to your own heart.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

It is our own evil thoughts which madden us.

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.

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.

Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.

We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.

Hours and days and months and years go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time gives us in which we live, we should therefore be content.

Trust no one unless you have eaten much salt with him.

The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.

In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people.

So it may well be believed that when I found him taking a complete holiday, with a vast supply of books at command, he had the air of indulging in a literary debauch, if the term may be applied to so honorable an occupation.

If a man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all.