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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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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But As To The

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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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.

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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.

A Good Orator Is Pointed And Impassioned.

Self Improvement

Public Speaking

In A Promise, What You Thought, And Not What You Said, Is Always To Be Considered.

The Impulse Which Directs To Right Conduct, And Deters From Crime, Is Not Only Older Than The Ages Of Nations And Cities, But Coeval With That Divine Being Who Sees And Rules Both Heaven And Earth.

Great Is Our Admiration Of The Orator Who Speaks With Fluency And Discretion.

Be A Pattern To Others And Then All Will Go Well.

For The Laws Are Dumb In The Midst Of Arms.

It Is A Shameful Thing To Be Weary Of Inquiry When What We Search For Is Excellent.

It Is Generally Said, "past Labors Are Pleasant," Euripides Says, For You All Know The Greek Verse, "the Recollection Of Past Labors Is Pleasant." [lat., Vulgo Enim Dicitur, Jucundi Acti Labores: Nec Male Euripides: Concludam, Si Potero, Latine: Graecum Enim Hunc Versum Nostis Omnes: Suavis Laborum Est Proeteritorum Memoria.

Let The Punishment Be Equal With The Offence. [lat., Noxiae Poena Par Esto.]

Hunger Is The Best Sauce.

Nothing Is So Unpredictable As A Throw Of The Dice, And Yet Every Man Who Plays Often Will At Some Time Or Other Make A Venus-cast: Now And Then He Indeed Will Make It Twice And Even Thrice In Succession. Are We Going To Be So Feebleminded Then As To Aver That Such A Thing Happened By The Personal Intervention Of Venus Rather Than By Pure Luck?

Nothing Troubles You For Which You Do Not Yearn.

What Fervent Love Of Herself Would Virtue Excite If She Could Be Seen!

No Man Should So Act As To Make A Gain Out Of The Ignorance Of Another.

If The Soul Has Food For Study And Learning, Nothing Is More Delightful Than An Old Age Of Leisure.

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.

There Is No Statement So Absurd That No Philosopher Will Make It.

Life Is Short, But Art Lives Forever.

It Is The Peculiar Quality Of A Fool To Perceive The Faults Of Others And To Forget His Own.

The Rabble Estimate Few Things According To Their Real Value, Most Things According To Their Prejudices.

Extreme Justice Is Extreme Injustice.

It Is Our Duty, My Young Friends, To Resist Old Age.

Rather Leave The Crime Of The Guilty Unpunished Than Condemn The Innocent.

Justice Is The Crowning Glory Of The Virtues.

Memory Is The Receptacle And Sheath Of All Knowledge

The Celestial Order And The Beauty Of The Universe Compel Me To Admit That There Is Some Excellent And Eternal Being, Who Deserves The Respect And Homage Of Men

History Is The Witness That Testifies To The Passing Of Time; It Illumines Reality, Vitalizes Memory, Provides Guidance In Daily Life And Brings Us Tidings Of Antiquities.  

Secret Enmities Are More To Be Feared Than Open Ones.

The Spirit Is The True Self. The Spirit, The Will To Win, And The Will To Excel Are The Things That Endure.

Inspirational Sports

The Whole Of Virtue Consists In Its Practice.

Every One Is Least Known To Himself, And It Is Very Difficult For A Man To Know Himself.

Let The Force Of Arms Give Place To Law And Justice.

Fortune Is Not Only Blind Herself, But Blinds The People She Has Embraced.

Thrift Is Of Great Revenue.

For My Own Part, I Had Rather Be Old Only A Short Time Than Be Old Before I Really Am So.

The Injuries That Befall Us Unexpectedly Are Less Severe Than Those Which Are Deliberately Anticipated.

It Is The Act Of A Bad Man To Deceive By Falsehood.

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

It Shows Nobility To Be Willing To Increase Your Debt To A Man To Whom You Already Owe Much.

He Is Sometimes Slave Who Should Be Master; And Sometimes Master Who Should Be Slave.

I Wonder That A Soothsayer Doesn't Laugh Whenever He Sees Another Soothsayer.

To Be Ignorant Of The Past Is To Be Forever A Child.

For If That Last Day Does Not Occasion An Entire Extinction, But A Change Of Abode Only, What Can Be More Desirable? And If It, On The Other Hand, Destroys And Absolutely Puts An End To Us, What Can Be Preferable To Having A Deep Sleep Fall On Us In The Midst Of The Fatigues Of Life And, Being Thus Overtaken, To Sleep To Eternity?

Six Mistakes Mankind Keeps Making Century After Century: Believing That Personal Gain Is Made By Crushing Others; Worrying About Things That Cannot Be Changed Or Corrected; Insisting That A Thing Is Impossible Because We Cannot Accomplish It; Refusing To Set Aside Trivial Preferences; Neglecting Development And Refinement Of The Mind; Attempting To Compel Others To Believe And Live As We Do.

Never Can Custom Conquer Nature, For She Is Ever Unconquered.

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.

He Who Has Once Deviated From The Truth, Usually Commits Perjury With As Little Scruple As He Would Tell A Lie.

Before Beginning, Prepare Carefully.

It Is A True Saying That 'one Falsehood Easily Leads To Another.'

Can You Also, Lucullus, Affirm That There Is Any Power United With Wisdom And Prudence Which Has Made, Or, To Use Your Own Expression, Manufactured Man? What Sort Of A Manufacture Is That? Where Is It Exercised? When? Why? How?

Death Darkens His Eyes, And Unplumes His Wings, Yet The Sweetest Song Is The Last He Sings: Live So, My Love, That When Death Shall Come, Swan-like And Sweet It May Waft Thee Home.

The Eyes, Like Sentinels, Hold The Highest Place In The Body. [lat., Oculi, Tanquam, Speculatores, Altissimum Locum Obtinent.]

Certain Signs Precede Certain Events.

A Community Is Like The Ones Who Govern It.

Vivere Est Cogitare. (to Think Is To Live)

Every Man Can Tell How Many Goats Or Sheep He Possesses, But Not How Many Friends.

There Is Nothing Which God Cannot Do. [lat., Nihil Est Quod Deus Efficere Non Possit.]

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

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

To Stumble Twice Against The Same Stone, Is A Proverbsial Disgrace.

In Everything Truth Surpasses The Imitation And Copy.

We Are All Excited By The Love Of Praise, And The Noblest Are Most Influenced By Glory.

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

The Greater The Difficulty, The Greater The Glory.

Men Resemble The Gods In Nothing So Much As In Doing Good To Their Fellow Creatures.

It Is The Nature Of Every Person To Error, But Only The Fool Perseveres In Error.

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.

To Freemen, Threats Are Impotent.

Our Thoughts Are Free.

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

Good Intentions

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

Nothing Is So Swift As Calumny, Nothing Is More Easily Propagated, Nothing More Readily Credited, Nothing More Widely Circulated.

To Wonder At Nothing When It Happens, To Consider Nothing Impossible Before It Has Come To Pass.

Of All The Rewards Of Virtue, . . . The Most Splendid Is Fame, For It Is Fame Alone That Can Offer Us The Memory Of Posterity.

A Man Would Have No Pleasures In Discovering All The Beauties Of The Universe, Even In Heaven Itself, Unless He Had A Partner To Whom He Might Communicate His Joys.

For To Me Every Sort Of Peace With The Citizens Seemed To Be Of More Service Than Civil War.

Nulla (enim) Res Tantum Ad Dicendum Proficit, Quantum Scriptio Nothing So Much Assists Learning As Writing Down What We Wish To Remember.

For A Tear Is Quickly Dried, Especially When Shed For The Misfortunes Of Others.

Misfortunes Of Others

A Wise Man Does Nothing By Constraint.

Who Does Not Know That The First Law Of Historical Writing Is The Truth.

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

Men In No Way Approach So Nearly To The Gods As In Doing Good To Men. [lat., Homines Ad Deos Nulla Re Propius Accedunt, Quam Salutem Hominibus Dando.]

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

Laws Are Silent In Time Of War.

Since An Intelligence Common To Us All Makes Things Known To Us And Formulates Them In Our Minds, Honorable Actions Are Ascribed By Us To Virtue, And Dishonorable Actions To Vice; And Only A Madman Would Conclude That These Judgments Are Matters Of Opinion, And Not Fixed By Nature.

The Life Given Us, By Nature Is Short; But The Memory Of A Well-spent Life Is Eternal.

In The Conduct Of Almost Every Affair Slowness And Procrastination Are Hateful

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For Nothing Is More Commendable, Nothing More Becoming In A Preeminently Great Man Than Courtesy And Forbearance.

Old Age By Nature Is Rather Talkative.

It Is Our Own Evil Thoughts Which Madden Us.

Friendship Makes Prosperity Brighter, While It Lightens Adversity By Sharing Its Griefs And Anxieties. [lat., Secundas Res Splendidiores Facit Amicitia, Et Adversas Partiens Communicansque Leviores.]

Inhumanity Is Harmful In Every Age. - Inhumanitas Omni Aetate Molesta Est

What An Ugly Beast The Ape, And How Like Us.

As Thou Sowest, So Shalt Thou Reap.

There Are Some Duties We Owe Even To Those Who Have Wronged Us. There Is, After All, A Limit To Retribution And Punishment.

The Precept, "know Yourself," Was Not Solely Intended To Obviate The Pride Of Mankind; But Likewise That We Might Understand Our Own Worth.

I Know That It Is Likely That As Worship Of The Gods Declines, Faith Between Men And All Human Society Will Disappear, As Well As That Most Excellent Of All Virtues, Which Is Justice.

To Live Long, Live Slowly.

"what Greater Gift Can We Offer The Republic Than To Teach And Instruct Our Youth?"

The Life Of The Dead Consists In The Recollection Cherished Of Them By The Living.

Of All Nature's Gifts To The Human Race, What Is Sweeter To A Man Than His Children?

Religion Is The Pious Worship Of God.

Frivolity Is Inborn, Conceit Acquired By Education.

Advice In Old Age Is Foolish; For What Can Be More Absurd Than To Increase Our Provisions For The Road The Nearer We Approach To Our Journey's End.

No Wise Man Ever Thought That A Traitor Should Be Trusted.

I Depart From Life As From An Inn, And Not As From My Home. [lat., Ex Vita Discedo, Tanquam Ex Hospitio, Non Tanquam Ex Domo.]

Wisdom Often Exists Under A Shabby Coat.

Hatred Is Inveterate Anger.

Nothing Is So Unbelievable That Oratory Cannot Make It Acceptable.

Nothing In Oratory Is More Important Than To Win For The Orator The Favour Of His Hearer, And To Have The Latter So Affected As To Be Swayed By Something Resembling An Impulse Of The Spirit Impetu Quodam Animi Or Emotion Perturbatione, Rather Than By Judgment Or Deliberation. For Men Decide Far More Problems By Hate, Or Love, Or Lust, Or Rage, Or Sorrow, Or Joy, Or Hope, Or Fear, Or Illusion, Or Some Other Inward Emotion Aliqua Permotione Mentis, Than By Reality Or Authority, Or Any Legal Standard, Or Judicial Precedent Or Statute.

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

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

I Look Upon The Pleasure Which We Take In A Garden As One Of The Most Innocent Delights In Human Life. . . It Gives Us A Great Insight Into The Contrivance And Wisdom Of Nature, And Suggests Innumerable Subjects For Meditation.

Thou Shouldst Eat To Live; Not Live To Eat. [lat., Esse Oportet Ut Vivas, Non Vivere Ut Edas.]

Nothing Quite New Is Perfect.

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

How Do Our Philosophers Act? Do They Not Inscribe Their Signatures To The Very Essays They Write On The Propriety Of Despising Glory.

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

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.

Strict Law Is Often Great Injustice.

If Some Lose Their Whole Fortunes, They Will Drag Many More Down With Them . . . Believe Me That The Whole System Of Credit And Finance Which Is Carried On Here At Rome In The Forum, Is Inextricably Bound Up With The Revenues Of The Asiatic Province. If Those Revenues Are Destroyed, Our Whole System Of Credit Will Come Down With A Crash.

Friendship Is Infinitely Better Than Kindness.

Any Man May Make A Mistake; None But A Fool Will Stick To It. Second Thoughts Are Best As The Proverb Says. [lat., Cujusvis Hominis Est Errare; Nullius, Nisi Insipientis, In Errore Perseverae. Posteriores Enim Cogitationes (ut Aiunt) Sapientiores Solent Esse.]

No Tempest Or Conflagration, However Great, Is Harder To Quell Than Mob Carried Away By The Novelty Of Power.

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

A Home Without Books Is A Body Without Soul.

No Poet Or Orator Has Ever Existed Who Believed There Was Any Better Than Himself.

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

That Which Is Usually Called Dotage Is Not The Weak Point Of All Old Men, But Only Of Such As Are Distinguished By Their Levity.

There Is Not Only An Art, But An Eloquence In It.

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

Diseases Of The Soul Are More Dangerous And More Numerous Than Those Of The Body.

While There's Life, There's Hope.

What Is There That Is Illustrious That Is Not Also Attended By Labor?

There Is No Opinion So Stupid That It Can't Be Expressed By Some Philosopher.

The Mansion Should Not Be Graced By Its Master, The Master Should Grace The Mansion.

In Times Of War, The Law Falls Silent.

The Freedom Of Poetic License.

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.

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

Victory Is By Nature Insolent And Haughty.

Law Stands Mute In The Midst Of Arms.

Fortune, Not Wisdom, Rules Lives.

We Are Bound By The Law, So That We May Be Free.

Let Flattery, The Handmaid Of The Vices, Be Far Removed .

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

The Aim Of Justice Is To Give Everyone His Due.

In Our Amusements A Certain Limit Is To Be Placed That We May Not Devote Ourselves To A Life Of Pleasure And Thence Fall Into Immorality.

Nothing Is So Difficult To Believe That Oratory Cannot Make It Acceptable, Nothing So Rough And Uncultured As Not To Gain Brilliance And Refinement From Eloquence.

In All Matters, Before Beginning, A Diligent Preparation Should Be Made.

Lucius Cassius Ille Quem Populus Romanus Verissimum Et Sapientissimum Iudicem Putabat Identidem In Causis Quaerere Solebat 'cui Bono' Fuisset. The Famous Lucius Cassius, Whom The Roman People Used To Regard As A Very Honest And Wise Judge, Was In The Habit Of Asking, Time And Again, 'to Whose Benefit?

I Am Never Less Alone Than When Alone.

I Remember The Very Thing That I Do Not Wish To; I Cannot Forget The Things I Wish To Forget.

The Beauty Of The World And The Orderly Arrangement Of Everything Celestial Makes Us Confess That There Is An Excellent And Eternal Nature, Which Ought To Be Worshiped And Admired By All Mankind.

This Is Our Special Duty, That If Anyone Specially Needs Our Help, We Should Give Him Such Help To The Utmost Of Our Power.

The Authors Who Affect Contempt For A Name In The World Put Their Names To The Books Which They Invite The World To Read.

The Authority Of Those Who Teach Is Often An Obstacle To Those Who Want To Learn.

Times Are Bad. Children No Longer Obey Their Parents, And Everyone Is Writing A Book.

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

The Whole Life Of A Philosopher Is The Meditation Of His Death.

The Master Sometimes Serves, And The Servant Sometimes Is Master.

That Which Is Not Forbidden, Is Not On That Account Permitted.

Do Not Blame Caesar, Blame The People Of Rome Who Have So Enthusiastically Acclaimed And Adored Him And Rejoiced In Their Loss Of Freedom And Danced In His Path And Gave Him Triumphal Processions. Blame The People Who Hail Him When He Speaks In The Forum Of The 'new, Wonderful Good Society' Which Shall Now Be Rome, Interpreted To Mean 'more Money, More Ease, More Security, More Living Fatly At The Expense Of The Industrious.'

Sweet Is The Recollection Of Difficulties Overcome.

Exercise And Temperance Can Preserve Something Of Our Early Strength Even In Old Age.

Constant Practice Devoted To One Subject Often Outdoes Both Intelligence And Skill. - Assiduus Usus Uni Rei Deditus Et Ingenium Et Artem Saepe Vincit

Time Obliterates The Fictions Of Opinion And Confirms The Decisions Of Nature.

I Look Upon The Pleasure We Take In A Garden As One Of The Most Innocent Delights In Human Life.

Generosity Should Never Exceed Ability.

Few Are Those Who Wish To Be Endowed With Virtue Rather Than To Seem So.

He Is Rich Who Wishes No More Than He Has.

The Shifts Of Fortune Test The Reliability Of Friends.

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

I Hope That The Memory Of Our Friendship Will Be Everlasting.

I Cannot Find A Faithful Message-bearer," He Wrote To His Friend, The Scholar Atticus. "how Few Are They Who Are Able To Carry A Rather Weighty Letter Without Lightening It By Reading.

O Philosophy, Life's Guide! O Searcher-out Of Virtue And Expeller Of Vices! What Could We And Every Age Of Men Have Been Without Thee? Thou Hast Produced Cities; Thou Hast Called Men Scattered About Into The Social Enjoyment Of Life. [lat., O Vitae Philosophia Dux! O Virtutis Indagatrix, Expultrixque Vitiorum! Quid Non Modo Nos, Sed Omnino Vita Hominum Sine Et Esse Potuisset? Tu Urbes Peperisti; Tu Dissipatos Homines In Societatum Vitae Convocasti.]

Hmm... That's Like Telling You About The Cold Of Space, Or Terror Of Midnight. Sithis Is All Those Things. He Is... The Void.

Great Is The Power Of Habit. It Teaches Us To Bear Fatigue And To Despise Wounds And Pain.

The Gardener Plants Trees, Not One Berry Of Which He Will Ever See: And Shall Not A Public Man Plant Laws, Institutions, Government, In Short, Under The Same Conditions?

Frugality Includes All The Other Virtues.

Who Doesn't Know That The First Law Of History Is Not To Dare To Say Anything False, And The Second Is Not To Refrain From Saying Anything True?

Rashness Belongs To Youth; Prudence To Old Age.

No Wise Man Has Called A Change Of Opinion In Constancy.

The Greatest Incitement To Guilt Is The Hope Of Sinning With Impunity.

The Soil Of Their Native Land Is Dear To All The Hearts Of Mankind.

When War Is Raging The Laws Are Dumb.

Who Can Love The Man He Fears. Or By Who He Thinks He Is Himself Feared?

Patria Est Communis Omnium Parens. Our Country Is The Common Parent Of All.

We Rejoice In The Joys Of Our Friends As Much As We Do Our Own, And We Are Equally Grieved At Their Sorrows. Wherefore The Wise People Will Feel Toward Their Friends As They Do Toward Themselves, And Whatever Labor They Would Encounter With A View To Their Own Pleasure, They Will Encounter Also For The Sake Of Their Friends.

Rightly Defined Philosophy Is Simply The Love Of Wisdom.

For It Is Commonly Said: Accomplished Labours Are Pleasant.

Reason Should Direct, And Appetite Obey.

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.

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

After Victory, You Have More Enemies.

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

It Is Pleasant To Recall Past Troubles.

Everyone Cleaves To The Doctrine He Has Happened Upon, As To A Rock Against Which He Has Been Thrown By Tempest.

True Nobility Is Exempt From Fear.

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