Background Image

...

A Careful Physician . . . Before He Attempts To Administer A Remedy To His Patient, Must Investigate Not Only The Malady Of The Man He Wishes To Cure, But Also His Habits When In Health, And His Physical Constitution.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

A Careful Physician .

Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

A Careful Physician . . . Before He Attempts To Administer A Remedy To His Patient, Must Investigate Not Only The Malady Of The Man He Wishes To Cure, But Also His Habits When In Health, And His Physical Constitution.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

The Causes Of Events Are Ever More Interesting Than The Events Themselves.

Not To Be Covetous, Is Money; Not To Be A Purchaser, Is A Revenue.

Never Injure A Friend, Even In Jest.

That Folly Of Old Age Which Is Called Dotage Is Peculiar To Silly Old Men, Not To Age Itself.

As A Philosopher, I Have A Right To Ask For A Rational Explanation Of Religious Faith.

Like, According To The Old Proverb, Naturally Goes With Like.

Hunger Is The Best Sauce.

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.

The Aim Of Forensic Oratory Is To Teach, To Delight, To Move.

An Innocent Man, If Accused, Can Be Acquitted; A Guilty Man, Unless Accused, Cannot Be Condemned. It Is, However, More Advantageous To Absolve An Innocent Than Not To Prosecute A Guilty Man.

Laws Should Be Interpreted In A Liberal Sense So That Their Intention May Be Preserved.

The Dutifulness Of Children Is The Foundation Of All Virtues.

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.

The Study And Knowledge Of The Universe Would Somehow Be Lame And Defective Were No Practical Results To Follow.

The Nearer I Approach Death The More I Feel Like One Who Is In Sight Of Land At Last And Is About To Anchor In One's Home Port After A Long Voyage.

The Aim Of Justice Is To Give Everyone His Due.

Cannot People Realize How Large An Income Is Thrift?

The Beginnings Of All Things Are Small.

Thus Nature Has No Love For Solitude, And Always Leans, As It Were, On Some Support; And The Sweetest Support Is Found In The Most Intimate Friendship.

Friendship Is The Only Point In Human Affairs Concerning The Benefit Of Which All, With One Voice, Agree.

Here Is A Man Whose Life And Actions The World Has Already Condemned - Yet Whose Enormous Fortune...has Already Brought Him Acquittal!

Even If You Have Nothing To Write, Write And Say So.

Let Arms Give Place To The Robe, And The Laurel Of The Warriors Yield To The Tongue Of The Orator.

In Prosperity Let Us Most Carefully Avoid Pride, Disdain, And Arrogance.

Friendship Is The Only Thing In The World Concerning The Usefulness Of Which All Mankind Are Agreed.

He Has No Worse Enemy Than Himself.

We Forget Our Pleasures, We Remember Our Sufferings.

The First Duty Of Man Is The Seeking After And The Investigation Of Truth.

There Is In Superstition A Senseless Fear Of God; Religion Consists In The Pious Worship Of Him.

Though Liberty Is Established By Law, We Must Be Vigilant, For Liberty To Enslave Us Is Always Present Under That Very Liberty. Our Constitution Speaks Of The "general Welfare Of The People." Under That Phrase All Sorts Of Excesses Can Be Employed By Lusting Tyrants To Make Us Bondsmen.

Nature Has Lent Us Life At Interest, Like Money, And Has Fixed No Day For Its Payment.

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.

If Nature Does Not Ratify Law, Then All The Virtues May Lose Their Sway.

When Money Is Unreasonably Coveted, It Is A Disease Of The Mind Which Is Called Avarice.

The Consciousness Of Good Intention Is The Greatest Solace Of Misfortunes.

Good Intentions

For There Is Assuredly Nothing Dearer To A Man Than Wisdom, And Though Age Takes Away All Else, It Undoubtedly Brings Us That.

He Is An Eloquent Man Who Can Treat Humble Subjects With Delicacy, Lofty Things Impressively, And Moderate Things Temperately.

A Man Does Not Wonder At What He Sees Frequently, Even Though He Be Ignorant Of The Reason. If Anything Happens Which He Has Not Seen Before, He Calls It A Prodigy.

Not To Know What Has Been Transacted In Former Times Is To Continue Always A Child.

Nobody Can Give You Wiser Advice Than Yourself; You Will Never Err If You Listen To Your Own Suggestions.

The Divinity Who Rules Within Us, Forbids Us To Leave This World Without His Command.

Fortune, Not Wisdom, Rules Lives.

The Contemplation Of Celestial Things Will Make A Man Both Speak And Think More Sublimely And Magnificently When He Descends To Human Affairs.

If Wisdom Be Attainable, Let Us Not Only Win But Enjoy It.

No Deceit Is So Veiled As That Which Lies Concealed Behind The Semblance Of Courtesy.

An Unjust Peace Is Better Than A Just War.

All Places Are Filled With Fools. [lat., Stultorum Plenea Sunt Omnia.]

There Is In Fact A True Law Namely Right Reason, Which Is In Accordance With Nature, Applies To All Men And Is Unchangeable And Eternal. ... It Will Not Lay Down One Rule At Rome And Another At Athens, Nor Will It Be One Rule Today And Another Tomorrow. But There Will Be One Law Eternal And Unchangeable Binding All Times And Upon All Peoples.

It Has Seemed To Be More Necessary To Have Regard To The Weight Of Words Rather Than To Their Number.

Be Sure That It Is Not You That Is Mortal, But Only Your Body. For That Man Whom Your Outward Form Reveals Is Not Yourself; The Spirit Is The True Self, Not That Physical Figure Which And Be Pointed Out By Your Finger.

It Is Foolish To Pluck Out One's Hair For Sorrow, As If Grief Could Be Assuaged By Baldness.

Vicious Habits Are So Odious And Degrading That They Transform The Individual Who Practices Them Into An Incarnate Demon.

No Sensible Man (among The Many Things That Have Been Written On This Kind) Ever Imputed Inconsistency To Another For Changing His Mind. [lat., Nemo Doctus Unquam (multa Autem De Hoc Genere Scripta Sunt) Mutationem Consili Inconstantiam Dixit Esse.]

Come Now: Do We Really Think That The Gods Are Everywhere Called By The Same Names By Which They Are Addressed By Us? But The Gods Have As Many Names As There Are Languages Among Humans. For It Is Not With The Gods As With You: You Are Velleius Wherever You Go, But Vulcan Is Not Vulcan In Italy And In Africa And In Spain.

He Is Rich Who Wishes No More Than He Has.

The Budget Should Be Balanced, The Treasury Refilled, Public Debt Reduced, The Arrogance Of Officialdom Tempered And Controlled, And The Assistance To Foreign Lands Curtailed, Lest Rome Become Bankrupt.

What We Call Pleasure, And Rightly So Is The Absence Of All Pain.

For Many Wish Not So Much To Be, As To Seem To Be, Endowed With Real Virtue.

For How Many Things, Which For Our Own Sake We Should Never Do, Do We Perform For The Sake Of Our Friends.

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.

But As To The Affection Which Anyone May Have For Us, It Is The First Demand Of Duty That We Do Most For Him Who Loves Us Most; But We Should Measure Affection, Not Like Youngsters, By The Ardour Of Its Passion, But Rather By Its Strength And Constancy.

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

All Pain Is Either Severe Or Slight, If Slight, It Is Easily Endured; If Severe, It Will Without Doubt Be Brief.

The Following Passage Is One Of Those Cited By Copernicus Himself In His Preface To De Revolutionibus: "the Syracusan Hicetas, As Theophrastus Asserts, Holds The View That The Heaven, Sun, Moon, Stars, And In Short All Of The Things On High Are Stationary, And That Nothing In The World Is In Motion Except The Earth, Which By Revolving And Twisting Round Its Axis With Extreme Velocity Produces All The Same Results As Would Be Produced If The Earth Were Stationary And The Heaven In Motion. . . ."

The Whole Glory Of Virtue Resides In Activity.

Not Cohabitation But Consensus Constitutes Marriage.

The Roots Of Knowledge Are Bitter, But Its Fruit Are Sweet.

In Nothing Do Humans Approach So Nearly To The Gods As Doing Good To Others.

Where Is There Dignity Unless There Is Honesty?

A Nation Can Survive Its Fools, And Even The Ambitious. But It Cannot Survive Treason From Within.

Friends, Though Absent, Are Still Present.

It Is Our Own Evil Thoughts Which Madden Us.

Opinionum Enim Commenta Delet Dies; Naturæ Judicia Confirmat. Time Destroys The Groundless Conceits Of Men; It Confirms Decisions Founded On Reality.

Those Wars Are Unjust Which Are Undertaken Without Provocation. For Only A War Waged For Revenge Or Defence Can Actually Be Just.

Because All The Sick Do Not Recover, Therefore Medicine Is Not An Art.

The Mere Act Of Believing That Some Wrongful Course Of Action Constitutes An Advantage Is Pernicious.

No Phase Of Life, Whether Public Or Private, Can Be Free From Duty.

For Hardly Any Man Dances When Sober, Unless He Is Insane. Nor Does He Dance While Alone, Nor At A Respectable And Moderate Party. Dancing Is The Final Phase Of A Wild Party With Fancy Decorations And A Multitude Of Delights.

I Am A Roman Citizen.

I Never Admire Another's Fortune So Much That I Became Dissatisfied With My Own.

There Is No Grief Which Time Does Not Lessen And Soften.

Probability Is The Very Guide Of Life.

What Nobler Employment, Or More Valuable To The State, Than That Of The Man Who Instructs The Rising Generation?

I Do Not Understand What The Man Who Is Happy Wants In Order To Be Happier.

Wars, Therefore, Are To Be Undertaken For This End, That We May Live In Peace, Without Being Injured; But When We Obtain The Victory, We Must Preserve Those Enemies Who Behaved Without Cruelty Or Inhumanity During The War.

The Nobler A Man, The Harder It Is For Him To Suspect Inferiority In Others.

From All Sides There Is Equally A Way To The Lower World.

No Liberal Man Would Impute A Charge Of Unsteadiness To Another For Having Changed His Opinion.

The Jews Belong To A Dark And Repulsive Force. One Knows How Numerous This Clique Is, How They Stick Together And What Power They Exercise Through Their Unions. They Are A Nation Of Rascals And Deceivers.

We Are Obliged To Respect, Defend And Maintain The Common Bonds Of Union And Fellowship That Exist Among All Members Of The Human Race.

Peace Is Liberty In Tranquillity.

When You Have No Basis For An Argument, Abuse The Plaintiff.

Old Age By Nature Is Rather Talkative.

It Is Exercise Alone That Supports The Spirits, And Keeps The Mind In Vigor.

There Is Nothing Which Wings Its Flight So Swiftly As Calumny, Nothing Is Uttered With More Ease; Nothing Is Listened To With More Readiness, Nothing Disbursed More Widely.

Wisdom Often Exists Under A Shabby Coat.

Friendship Is Not To Be Sought For Its Wages, But Because Its Revenue Consists Entirely In The Love Which It Implies.

If You Wish To Persuade Me, You Must Think My Thoughts, Feel My Feelings, And Speak My Words.

The Leaders Should All Relate To This Principle: The Governed Must Be As Happy As Possible.

Sweet Is The Recollection Of Difficulties Overcome.

Honourable Mention Encourages Science, And Merit Is Fostered By Praise.

Most Happy Is He Who Is Entirely Self-reliant, And Who Centers All His Requirements In Himself Alone.

These Studies Are A Spur To The Young, A Delight To The Old: An Ornament In Prosperity, A Consoling Refuge In Adversity; They Are Pleasure For Us At Home, And No Burden Abroad; They Stay Up With Us At Night, They Accompany Us When We Travel, They Are With Us In Our Country Visits.

If Only Every Man Would Make Proper Use Of His Strength And Do His Utmost, He Need Never Regret His Limited Ability.

Things Sacred Should Not Only Be Touched With The Hands, But Unviolated In Thought. [lat., Res Sacros Non Modo Manibus Attingi, Sed Ne Cogitatione Quidem Violari Fas Fuit.]

No Sane Man Will Dance.

Not To Be Avaricious Is Money; Not To Be Fond Of Buying Is A Revenue; But To Be Content With Our Own Is The Greatest And Most Certain Wealth Of All.

The More Virtuous Any Man Is, The Less Easily Does He Suspect Others To Be Vicious.

The Spirit Is The True Self.

The Life Of The Dead Is Placed In The Memory Of The Living.

He Who Acknowledges A Kindness Has It Still, And He Who Has A Grateful Sense Of It Has Requited It.

All I Can Do Is To Urge On You To Regard Friendship As The Greatest Thing In The World; For There Is Nothing Which So Fits In With Our Nature, Or Is So Exactly What We Want In Prosperity Or Adversity.

Nature Has Granted The Use Of Life Like A Loan, Without Fixing Any Day For Repayment.

The Gods Attend To Great Matters, They Neglect Small Ones.

Without Your Knowledge, The Eyes And Ears Of Many Will See And Watch You, As They Have Done Already.

No One Could Ever Meet Death For His Country Without The Hope Of Immortality.

To Freemen, Threats Are Impotent. [lat., Nulla Enim Minantis Auctoritas Apud Liberos Est.]

There Is Nothing Better Fitted To Delight The Reader Than Change Of Circumstances And Varieties Of Fortune.

Certain Signs Precede Certain Events.

Unraveling The Web Of Penelope.

Virtue Is Its Own Reward.

Excessive Liberty Leads Both Nations And Individuals Into Excessive Slavery. [lat., Nimia Libertas Et Populis Et Privatis In Nimiam Servitutem Cadit.]

I Am Not Ashamed To Confess That I Am Ignorant Of What I Do Not Know.

Armed Forces Abroad Are Of Little Value Unless There Is Prudent Counsel At Home

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.

Softly! Softly! I Want None But The Judges To Hear Me. The Jews Have Already Gotten Me Into A Fine Mess, As They Have Many Other Gentleman. I Have No Desire To Furnish Further Grist For Their Mills.

I Have Never Yet Known A Poet Who Did Not Think Himself Super-excellent.

Nothing Quite New Is Perfect.

Studies Are The Food Of Youth, The Delight Of Old Age; The Ornament Of Prosperity, The Refuge And Comfort Of Adversity; A Delight At Home, And No Hindrance Abroad; They Are Companions By Night, And In Travel, And In The Country.

We Must Conceive Of This Whole Universe As One Commonwealth Of Which Both Gods And Men Are Members.

The Name Of Peace Is Sweet, And The Thing Itself Is Beneficial, But There Is A Great Difference Between Peace And Servitude. Peace Is Freedom In Tranquillity, Servitude Is The Worst Of All Evils, To Be Resisted Not Only By War, But Even By Death.

I Hate All Children Of Precocious Talent.

Orators Are Most Vehement When They Have The Weakest Cause, As Men Get On Horseback When They Cannot Walk.

Friendship Is Infinitely Better Than Kindness.

Nature Herself Has Imprinted On The Minds Of All The Idea Of God

A Man Has No Enemy Worse Than Himself.

Any Man Can Make Mistakes, But Only An Idiot Persists In His Error.

Nothing Is More Noble, Nothing More Venerable Than Fidelity. Faithfulness And Truth Are The Most Sacred Excellences And Endowments Of The Human Mind.

I Do Not Now So Much As Wish To Have The Strength Of Youth Again That I Wish'd In Youth For The Strength Of An Ox Or Elephant. For It Is Our Business Only To Make The Best Use We Can Of The Powers Granted Us By Nature.

The Spirit Is The True Self, Not That Physical Figure Which Can Be Pointed Out By Your Finger.

For He, Indeed, Who Looks Into The Face Of A Friend Beholds, As It Were, A Copy Of Himself.

Mathematics Is An Obscure Field, An Abstruse Science, Complicated And Exact; Yet So Many Have Attained Perfection In It That We Might Conclude Almost Anyone Who Seriously Applied Himself Would Achieve A Measure Of Success.

For The Laws Are Dumb In The Midst Of Arms.

In A Disturbed Mind, As In A Body In The Same State, Health Can Not Exist.

It Is As Hard For The Good To Suspect Evil, As It Is For The Bad To Suspect Good.

We Are Not Born For Ourselves Alone.

Brevity Is A Great Charm Of Eloquence.

This Is The Truth: As From A Fire Aflame Thousands Of Sparks Come Forth, Even So From The Creator An Infinity Of Beings Have Life And To Him Return Again.

Cicero Is Dead! Cicero Is Born! The Laughter Has Filled Me, Filled Me So Very Completely. I Am The Laughter. I Am The Jester. The Soul That Has Served As My Constant Companion For So Long Has Breached The Veil Of The Void Finally And Forever. It Is Now In Me. It Is Me. The World Has Seen The Last Of Cicero The Man. Behold Cicero, Fool Of Hearts - Laughter Incarnate!

Longing Not So Much To Change Things As To Overturn Them.

It Is Difficult To Set Bounds To The Price Unless You First Set Bounds To The Wish.

It Is Difficult To Tell How Much Men's Minds Are Conciliated By A Kind Manner And Gentle Speech.

Things Perfected By Nature Are Better Than Those Finished By Art.

Natural Environment

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.

A Thankful Heart Is Not Only The Greatest Virtue, But The Parent Of All The Other Virtues. [lat., Gratus Animus Est Una Virtus Non Solum Maxima, Sed Etiam Mater Virtutum Onmium Reliquarum.]

I Hear Socrates Saying That The Best Seasoning For Food Is Hunger; For Drink, Thirst.

There Is In Superstition A Senseless Fear Of God.

Prudence In Action Avails More Than Wisdom In Conception.

If We Are Not Ashamed To Think It, We Should Not Be Ashamed To Say It.

How Great An Evil Do You See That May Have Been Announced By You Against The Republic? - Videtis Quantum Scelus Contra Rem Publicam Vobis Nuntiatum Sit?

Nothing Is More Unreliable Than The Populace, Nothing More Obscure Than Human Intentions, Nothing More Deceptive Than The Whole Electoral System.

To-morrow Will Give Some Food For Thought.

We Should Be Careful That Our Benevolence Does Not Exceed Our Means.

Anger Should Never Appear In Awarding Punishment.

A Nation Can Survive Its Fools, And Even The Ambitious. But It Cannot Survive Treason From Within. An Enemy At The Gates Is Less Formidable, For He Is Known And Carries His Banner Openly. But The Traitor Moves Amongst Those Within The Gate Freely, His Sly Whispers Rustling Through All The Alleys, Heard In The Very Halls Of Government Itself.

World Government

History Is The Teacher Of Life

The Eyes Like Sentinel Occupy The Highest Place In The Body.

There Are No True Friends In Politics.

No True Friends

Those Who Do Not Know History Will Forever Remain Children

The Men Who Administer Public Affairs Must First Of All See That Everyone Holds Onto What Is His, And That Private Men Are Never Deprived Of Their Goods By Public Men.

To Teach Is A Necessity, To Please Is A Sweetness, To Persuade Is A Victory.

When War Is Raging The Laws Are Dumb.

Rashness Belongs To Youth; Prudence To Old Age.

The Long Time To Come When I Shall Not Exist Has More Effect On Me Than This Short Present Time, Which Nevertheless Seems Endless.

Each Part Of Life Has Its Own Pleasures. Each Has Its Own Abundant Harvest, To Be Garnered In Season. We May Grow Old In Body, But We Need Never Grow Old In Mind And Spirit. No One Is As Old As To Think He Or She Cannot Live One More Year.

He Who Suffers, Remembers.

Reason Is The Mistress And Queen Of All Things. [lat., Domina Omnium Et Regina Ratio.]

Yield, Ye Arms, To The Toga; To Civic Praise, Ye Laurels.

A Man's Own Manner And Character Is What Most Becomes Him.

By Hercules! I Prefer To Err With Plato, Whom I Know How Much You Value, Than To Be Right In The Company Of Such Men.

The Foundations Of Justice Are That On One Shall Suffer Wrong; Then, That The Public Good Be Promoted.

Generosity Should Never Exceed Ability.

Certain Signs Are The Forerunners Of Certain Events.

Silent Enim Leges Inter Arma (laws Are Silent In Times Of War).

We Cannot Employ The Mind To Advantage When We Are Filled With Excessive Food And Drink.

Action Is The Language Of The Body And Should Harmonize With The Spirit Within.

That Last Day Does Not Bring Extinction To Us, But Change Of Place.

Virtue Is Increased By The Smile Of Approval; And The Love Of Renown Is The Greatest Incentive To Honourable Acts.

Every Evil In The Bud Is Easily Crushed: As It Grows Older, It Becomes Stronger.

I Prefer The Most Unfair Peace To The Most Righteous War.

Brevity Is The Best Recommendation Of Speech, Whether In A Senator Or An Orator.

Brevity Of Life

I Know Not Any Season Of Life That Is Past More Agreeably Than Virtuous Old Age.

Like Associates With Like.

Lay Down This Rule Of Friendship: Neither Ask Nor Consent To Do What Is Wrong. The Plea, 'for Friendship's Sake,' Is A Discreditable One, And Should Not Be Admitted For A Moment. We Should Ask From Friends And Do For Friends Only What Is Good.

What One Has, One Ought To Use: And Whatever He Does He Should Do With All His Might.

As The Scale Of The Balance Must Give Way To The Weight That Presses It Down, So The Mind Must Of Necessity Yield To Demonstration.

Ye Immortal Gods! Where In The World Are We?

Every Word That Is Unnecessary Only Pours Over The Side Of A Brimming Mind.

A Wise Man Does Nothing By Constraint.

The Great Theatre For Virtue Is Conscience.

Trending Author

Chester Bennington

Abbas Kiarostami

Katherine Harris

Francine Rivers

Category