Background Image

...

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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Come Now: Do We

Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

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.

Views: 4

Topic

More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

There Is A Certain Virtue In Every Good Man, Which Night And Day Stirs Up The Mind With The Stimulus Of Glory, And Reminds It That All Mention Of Our Name Will Not Cease At The Same Time With Our Lives, But That Our Fame Will Endure To All Posterity.

Prudence Must Not Be Expected From A Man Who Is Never Sober. [lat., Non Est Ab Homine Nunquam Sobrio Postulanda Prudentia.]

There Is Sufficient Reward In The Mere Consciousness Of A Good Action.

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.

There Is No Fortune So Strong That Money Cannot Take It.

Rightly Defined Philosophy Is Simply The Love Of Wisdom.

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

He Removes The Greatest Ornament Of Friendship Who Takes Away From It Respect.

Let Us Not Listen To Those Who Think We Ought To Be Angry With Our Enemies, And Who Believe This To Be Great And Manly. Nothing Is So Praiseworthy, Nothing So Clearly Shows A Great And Noble Soul, As Clemency And Readiness To Forgive.

There Is Nothing So Absurd That Some Philosopher Has Not Already Said It.

Nature Herself Makes The Wise Man Rich.

There Is No Moment Without Some Duty.

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!

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

Procrastination

Prosperity Demands Of Us More Prudence And Moderation Than Adversity.

Everyone Has His Besetting Sin.

It Might Be Pardonable To Refuse To Defend Some Men, But To Defend Them Negligently Is Nothing Short Of Criminal.

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

To Live Long, Live Slowly.

Civilized People Are Taught By Logic, Barbarians, By Necessity, Communities By Tradition; And The Lesson Inculcated Even In Wild Beasts By Nature Itself. They Learn That They Have To Defend Their Own Bodies And Persons Lives From Violence Of Any And Every Kind By All Means Within Their Power.

According To The Law Of Nature It Is Only Fair That No One Should Become Richer Through Damages And Injuries Suffered By Another.

It Is Of No Avail To Know What Is About To Happen; For It Is A Sad Thing To Be Grieved When Grief Can Do No Good.

It Is A Great Proof Of Talents To Be Able To Recall The Mind From The Senses, And To Separate Thought From Habit.

The Chief Recommendation Is Modesty, Then Dutiful Conduct Toward Parents, Then Affection For Kindred.

What Gift Has Providence Bestowed On Man That Is So Dear To Him As His Children?

Can Any One Find In What Condition His Body Will Be, I Do Not Say A Year Hence, But This Evening?

Hatred Is Inveterate Anger.

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

You Will Be As Much Value To Others As You Have Been To Yourself.

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.

Men Do Not Realize How Great An Income Thrift Is.

There Is Pleasure In Calm Remembrance Of A Past Sorrow.

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?

Certain Signs Are The Forerunners Of Certain Events.

Any Man May Make A Mistake; None But A Fool Will Stick To It. Second Thoughts Are Best As The Proverb Says.

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.]

What Is Becoming Is Honest, And Whatever Is Honest Must Always Be Becoming.

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

Even The Ablest Pilots Are Willing To Receive Advice From Passengers In Tempestuous Weather.

Anyone Who Has Got A Book Collection/library And A Garden Wants For Nothing.

Great Is The Power, Great Is The Authority Of A Senate That Is Unanimous In Its Opinions.

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

All Soils Are Not Fertile.

Socrates, Indeed, When He Was Asked Of What Country He Called Himself, Said, "of The World"; For He Considered Himself An Inhabitant And A Citizen Of The Whole World.

This Excessive Licence, Which The Anarchists Think Is The Only True Freedom, Provides The Stock, As It Were, From Which A Tyrant Grows.

For What Is There More Hideous Than Avarice, More Brutal Than Lust, More Contemptible Than Cowardice, More Base Than Stupidity And Folly?

Wisdom Often Exists Under A Shabby Coat.

There Is No Thing Which God Cannot Accomplish.

It Is Virtue, Virtue, Which Both Creates And Preserves Friendship. On It Depends Harmony Of Interest, Permanence, Fidelity.

True Glory Takes Root, And Even Spreads; All False Pretences, Like Flowers, Fall To The Ground; Nor Can Any Counterfeit Last Long.

Man Is His Own Worst Enemy. [lat., Nihil Inimicius Quam Sibi Ipse.]

Time Puts An End To Speculation In Opinions, And Confirms The Laws Of Nature.

He Does Not Seem To Me To Be A Free Man Who Does Not Sometimes Do Nothing.

To Live Long It Is Necessary To Live Slowly.

What Is Dishonestly Got Vanishes In Profligacy.

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.

The Remembrance Of Past Misery Is Sweet.

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.

If You Have A Garden And A Library, You Have Everything You Need.

For Of All Gainful Professions, Nothing Is Better, Nothing More Pleasing, Nothing More Delightful, Nothing Better Becomes A Well-bred Man Than #‎ Agriculture

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

For No Phase Of Life, Whether Public Or Private, Whether In Business Or In The Home, Whether One Is Working On What Concerns Oneself Alone Or Dealing With Another, Can Be Without Its Moral Duty; On The Discharge Of Such Duties Depends All That Is Morally Right, And On Their Neglect All That Is Morally Wrong In Life.

Religion Is The Pious Worship Of God.

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

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

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

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

The Man Who Backbites An Absent Friend, Nay, Who Does Not Stand Up For Him When Another Blames Him, The Man Who Angles For Bursts Of Laughter And For The Repute Of A Wit, Who Can Invent What He Never Saw, Who Cannot Keep A Secret -- That Man Is Black At Heart: Mark And Avoid Him.

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

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

The Countenance Is The Portrait Of The Soul, And The Eyes Mark Its Intentions.

A Person Who Is Wise Does Nothing Against Their Will, Nothing With Sighing Or Under Coercion.

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.

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

The Whole Of Virtue Consists In Its Practice.

Hatred Is Settled Anger.

The Shifts Of Fortune Test The Reliability Of Friends.

The False Is Nothing But An Imitation Of The True.

There Is A Difference Between Justice And Consideration In One's Relations To One's Fellow Men. It Is The Function Of Justice Not To Do Wrong To One's Fellow Men Of Considerateness, Not To Wound Their Feelings.

In A Republic This Rule Ought To Be Observed: That The Majority Should Not Have The Predominant Power.

I Cheerfully Quit From Life As If It Were An Inn, Not A Home; For Nature Has Given Us A Hostelry In Which To Sojourn, Not To Abide.

In Fact The Whole Passion Ordinarily Termed Love (and Heaven Help Me If I Can Think Of Any Other Term To Apply To It) Is Of Such Exceeding Triviality That I See Nothing That I Think Comparable With It.

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

Death Approaches, Which Is Always Impending Like The Stone Over Tantalus: Then Comes Superstition With Which He Who Is Imbued Can Never Have Peace Of Mind.

Always The Same Thing.

Plato Divinely Calls Pleasure The Bait Of Evil, Inasmuch As Men Are Caught By It As Fish By A Hook.

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.

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?

There Is No Being Of Any Race Who, If He Finds The Proper Guide, Cannot Attain To Virtue.

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

Oh, How Great Is The Power Of Truth! Which Of Its Own Power Can Easily Defend Itself Against All The Ingenuity And Cunning And Wisdom Of Men, And Against The Treacherous Plots Of All The World.

To Err Is Human, But To Persevere In Error Is Only The Act Of A Fool.

To Be Content With What We Possess Is The Greatest And Most Secure Of Riches.

No Power Is Strong Enough To Be Lasting, If It Labours Under The Weight Of Fear.

Let Art, Then, Imitate Nature, Find What She Desires, And Follow As She Directs. For In Invention Nature Is Never Last, Education Never First; Rather The Beginnings Of Things Arise From Natural Talent, And Ends Are Reached By Discipline.

For As The Law Is Set Over The Magistrate, Even So Are The Magistrates Set Over The People. And Therefore, It May Be Truly Said, "that The Magistrate Is A Speaking Law, And The Law Is A Silent Magistrate.

Brevity Is A Great Charm Of Eloquence.

I Prefer Silent Prudence To Loquacious Folly.

I Am Never Less Alone Than When Alone.

Men Ought To Be Most Annoyed By The Sufferings Which Come From Their Own Faults.

They Who Say That We Should Love Our Fellow-citizens But Not Foreigners, Destroy The Universal Brotherhood Of Mankind, With Which Benevolence And Justice Would Perish Forever.

Pardon Is Granted To Necessity.

Sweet Is The Recollection Of Difficulties Overcome.

Memory Is The Treasury And Guardian Of All Things.

It Is Foolish To Tear One's Hair In Grief, As Though Sorrow Would Be Made Less By Baldness.

Justice Extorts No Reward, No Kind Of Price; She Is Sought, Therefore, For Her Own Sake.

Fortune, Not Wisdom, Rules Lives.

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

Scurrility Has No Object In View But Incivility; If It Is Uttered From Feelings Of Petulance, It Is Mere Abuse; If It Is Spoken In A Joking Manner, It May Be Considered Raillery.

Old Age By Nature Is Rather Talkative.

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.

To Some Extent I Liken Slavery To Death.

Freedom Is A Possession Of Inestimable Value.

Judge Not By The Number, But By The Weight.

It Is Disgraceful When The Passers-by Exclaim, "o Ancient House! Alas, How Unlike Is Thy Present Master To Thy Former One.

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

What The Object Of Senile Avarice May Be I Cannot Conceive. For Can There Be Anything More Absurd Than To Seek More Journey Money, The Less There Remains Of The Journey?

Everything Is Alive... Everything Is Interconnected.

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

Let War Yield To Peace, Laurels To Paeans.

Physicians, When The Cause Of Disease Is Discovered, Consider That The Cure Is Discovered.

Morals Today Are Corrupted By Our Worship Of Riches.

The Foundation Of Justice Is Good Faith.

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.

There Is No Duty More Obligatory Than The Repayment Of Kindness.

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.

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.]

Justice Consists In Doing No Injury To Men; Decency In Giving Them No Offense.

Offense And Defense

In Everything Satiety Closely Follows The Greatest Pleasures.

Pleasures Of Life

A Man Of Courage Is Also Full Of Faith.

The Diligent Farmer Plants Trees, Of Which He Himself Will Never See The Fruit.

Art Is Born Of The Observation And Investigation Of Nature.

Not Cohabitation But Consensus Constitutes Marriage.

Wisdom Is Not Only To Be Acquired, But Enjoyed.

Do Nothing Twice Over.

The Law Is Silent During War. [lat., Silent Leges Inter Arma.]

If You Pursue Good With Labor, The Labor Passes Away But The Good Remains; If You Pursue Evil With Pleasure, The Pleasure Passes Away And The Evil Remains.

Making A Difference

It Is Besides Necessary That Whoever Is Brave Should Be A Man Of Great Soul.

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

Let The Punishment Be Proportionate To The Offense.

The Man Who Is Always Fortunate Cannot Easily Have A Great Reverence For Virtue.

Our Minds Are Rendered Buoyant By Exercise.

On The Subject Of The Nature Of The Gods, The First Question Is Do The Gods Exist Or Do The Not? It Is Difficult You May Say To Deny That They Exist. I Would Agree If We Were Arguing The Matter In A Public Assembly, But In A Private Discussion Of This Kind, It Is Perfectly Easy To Do So.

Justice Renders To Every One His Due.

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

Let The Welfare Of The People Be The Ultimate Law.

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

The Well-known Old Remark Of Cato, Who Used To Wonder How Two Soothsayers Could Look One Another In The Face Without Laughing.

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.]

Just As The Soul Fills The Body, So God Fills The World. Just As The Soul Bears The Body, So God Endures The World. Just As The Soul Sees But Is Not Seen, So God Sees But Is Not Seen. Just As The Soul Feeds The Body, So God Gives Food To The World.

Robbing Life Of Friendship Is Like Robbing The World Of The Sun.

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

Philosophy Is True Mother Of The Arts [of Science].

No One Dances Sober, Unless He Is Insane.

Economy Is A Great Revenue. [lat., Magnum Vectigal Est Parsimonia.]

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.

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.]

Friendship Is Nothing Else Than Entire Fellow Feeling As To All Things Human And Divine With Mutual Good-will And Affection; And I Doubt Whether Anything Better Than This, Wisdom Alone Excepted, Has Been Given To Man.

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

We Learn Nothing From History Except That We Learn Nothing From History.

It Is Our Own Evil Thoughts Which Madden Us.

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

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

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.

In The Approach To Virtue There Are Many Steps.

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.

Every Stage Of Human Life, Except The Last, Is Marked Out By Certain And Defined Limits; Old Age Alone Has No Precise And Determinate Boundary.

O Philosophy, You Leader Of Life.

"i Believe That No Characteristic Is So Distinctively Human As The Sense Of Indebtedness We Feel, Not Necessarily For A Favor Received, But Even For The Slightest Evidence Of Kindness; And There Is Nothing So Boorish, Savage, Inhuman As To Appear To Be Overwhelmed By A Favor, Let Alone Unworthy Of It."

The Office Of Liberality Consisteth In Giving With Judgment.

The House Should Derive Dignity From The Master, Not The Master From The House.

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

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

Ill Gotten Gains Will Be Ill Spent.

The Proof Of A Well-trained Mind Is That It Rejoices In Which Is Good And Grieves At The Opposite.

We Must Not Only Obtain Wisdom: We Must Enjoy Her.

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.

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

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

As Thou Sowest, So Shalt Thou Reap.

I Am A Roman Citizen.

Tomorrow Will Give Us Something To Think About

For Out Of Such An Ungoverned Populace One Is Usually Chosen As A Leader, Someone Bold And Unscrupulous Who Curries Favor With The People By Giving Them Other Men's Property. To Such A Man The Protection Of Public Office Is Given, And Continually Renewed. He Emerges As A Tyrant Over The Very People Who Raised Him To Power.

We Study History Not To Be Clever In Another Time, But To Be Wise Always.

Should This My Firm Persuasion Of The Soul's Immortality Prove To Be A Mere Delusion, It Is At Least A Pleasing Delusion, And I Will Cherish It To My Last Breath.

I Am Of Opinion That There Is Nothing So Beautiful But That There Is Something Still More Beautiful, Of Which This Is The Mere Image And Expression,--a Something Which Can Neither Be Perceived By The Eyes, The Ears, Nor Any Of The Senses; We Comprehend It Merely In The Imagination.

For Surely To Be Wise Is The Most Desirable Thing In All The World.

Extreme Justice Is Extreme Injustice.

Anyone May Fairly Seek His Own Advantage, But No One Has A Right To Do So At Another's Expense.

The Comfort Derived From The Misery Of Others Is Slight.

Let Us Remember That Justice Must Be Observed Even To The Lowest.

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.

No Sane Man Will Dance.

Never Go To Excess, But Let Moderation Be Your Guide.

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

There Is No Quality I Would Rather Have, And Be Thought To Have, Than Gratitude. For It Is Not Only The Greatest Virtue, But Is The Mother Of All The Rest.

History Is Truely The Witness Of Times Past, The Light Of Truth, The Life Of Memory, The Teacher Of Life, The Messenger Of Antiquity.

In Friendship We Find Nothing False Or Insincere; Everything Is Straight Forward, And Springs From The Heart.

Trending Author

Beverley Mitchell

Category