Background Image

...

For While We Are Enclosed In These Confinements Of The Body, We Perform As A Kind Of Duty The Heavy Task Of Necessity; For The Soul From Heaven Has Been Cast Down From Its Dwelling On High And Sunk, As It Were, Into The Earth, A Place Just The Opposite To Godlike Nature And Eternity. But I Believe That The Immortal Gods Have Sown Souls In Human Bodies So There Might Exist Beings To Guard The World And After Contemplating The Order Of Heaven, Might Imitate It By Their Moderation And Steadfastness In Life.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

For While We Are

Marcus Tullius Cicero

...

For While We Are Enclosed In These Confinements Of The Body, We Perform As A Kind Of Duty The Heavy Task Of Necessity; For The Soul From Heaven Has Been Cast Down From Its Dwelling On High And Sunk, As It Were, Into The Earth, A Place Just The Opposite To Godlike Nature And Eternity. But I Believe That The Immortal Gods Have Sown Souls In Human Bodies So There Might Exist Beings To Guard The World And After Contemplating The Order Of Heaven, Might Imitate It By Their Moderation And Steadfastness In Life.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

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?

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.

The Memory Of Past Troubles Is Pleasant. [lat., Jucunda Memoria Est Praeteritorum Malorum.]

To Be Ignorant Of What Occurred Before You Were Born Is To Remain Always A Child.

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

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

There Is In Superstition A Senseless Fear Of God.

Please Go On, Make Your Threats. I Don't Like To Submit To Mere Implication.

Would That I Could Discover Truth As Easily As I Can Uncover Falsehood.

Dogs Wait For Us Faithfully.

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

A Bureaucrat Is The Most Despicable Of Men, Though He Is Needed As Vultures Are Needed, But One Hardly Admires Vultures Whom Bureaucrats So Strangely Resemble. I Have Yet To Meet A Bureaucrat Who Was Not Petty, Dull, Almost Witless, Crafty Or Stupid, An Oppressor Or A Thief, A Holder Of Little Authority In Which He Delights, As A Boy Delights In Possessing A Vicious Dog. Who Can Trust Such Creatures?

Ill Gotten Gains Will Be Ill Spent.

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

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

The Devil Finds Work For Idle Hands To Do. Better To Reign In The Hell Than Serve In Heaven. We Are In Bondage To The Law In Order That We May Be Free.

The Judgment Of Posterity Is Truer, Because It Is Free From Envy And Malevolence.

To Some Extent I Liken Slavery To Death.

The Diseases Of The Mind Are More And More Destructive Than Those Of The Body. [lat., Morbi Perniciores Pluresque Animi Quam Corporis.]

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.

Nature Has Planted In Our Minds An Insatiable Longing To See The Truth.

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

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

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

The Only Excuse For War Is That We May Live In Peace Unharmed.

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

These (literary) Studies Are The Food Of Youth, And Consolation Of Age; They Adorn Prosperity, And Are The Comfort And Refuge Of Adversity; They Are Pleasant At Home, And Are No Incumbrance Abroad; They Accompany Us At Night, In Our Travels, And In Our Rural Retreats.

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

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

The Home Is The Empire! There Is No Peace More Delightful Than One's Own Fireplace.

It Is Like Taking The Sun Out Of The World, To Bereave Human Life Of Friendship.

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

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

The Foundation Of Justice Is Good Faith.

The Beginnings Of All Things Are Small.

Laws Are Inoperative In War

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

There Is No Place More Delightful Than Home.

Through Doubt We Arrive At The Truth.

We Can More Easily Avenge An Injury Than Requite A Kindness; On This Account, Because There Is Less Difficulty In Getting The Better Of The Wicked Than In Making One's Self Equal With The Good.

As The Grace Of Man Is In The Mind, So The Beauty Of The Mind Is Eloquence.

If A Man Could Mount To Heaven And Survey The Mighty Universe, His Admiration Of Its Beauties Would Be Much Diminished Unless He Had Someone To Share In His Pleasure.

Freedom Suppressed And Again Regained Bites With Keener Fangs Than Freedom Never Endangered.

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

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

It Is Pleasant To Recall Past Troubles.

Nature Ordains That A Man Should Wish The Good Of Every Man, Whoever He May Be, For This Very Reason That He Is A Man.

True Law Is Right Reason In Agreement With Nature;...it Summons To Duty By Its Commands, And Averts From Wrongdoing By Its Prohibitions... It Is A Sin To Try To Alter This Law, Nor Is It Allowable To Attempt To Repeal Any Part Of It, And It Is Impossible To Abolish It Entirely.

What Is Impossible By The Nature Of Things Is Not Confirmed By Any Law.

Fear Is Not A Lasting Teacher Of Duty.

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

O Philosophy, You Leader Of Life.

No One Was Ever Great Without Some Portion Of Divine Inspiration.

Divine Inspiration

Cultivation To The Mind Is As Necessary As Food To The Body.

Memory Is The Receptacle And Sheath Of All Knowledge

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

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.

Religion Is The Pious Worship Of God.

"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."

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

There Is Not A Moment Without Some Duty.

Not To Know What Has Been Transacted In Former Times Is To Be Always A Child. If No Use Is Made Of The Labors Of Past Ages, The World Must Remain Always In The Infancy Of Knowledge.

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

So You See, Old Age Is Really Not So Bad. May You Come To Know The Condition!

A Life Of Peace, Purity And Refinement Leads To A Calm And Untroubled Old Age.

All Things Tend To Corrupt Perverted Minds.

Men, In Whatever Anxiety They May Be, If They Are Men, Sometimes Indulge In Relaxation.

The Aim Of Justice Is To Give Everyone His Due.

While All Other Things Are Uncertain, Evanescent, And Ephemeral, Virtue Alone Is Fixed With Deep Roots; It Can Neither Be Overthrown By Any Violence Or Moved From Its Place.

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

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

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

The Spirit Is The True Self.

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

Fortune, Not Wisdom, Rules Lives.

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

No One Is So Old That He Does Not Think He Could Live Another Year.

We Must Not Say That Every Mistake Is A Foolish One.

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

We Don't Believe A Liar Even When He Tells The Truth.

To Add A Library To A House Is To Give That House A Soul.

I Cease Not To Advocate Peace; Even Though Unjust It Is Better Than The Most Just War.

It Shows A Weak Mind Not To Bear Prosperity As Well As Adversity With Moderation.

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.

Study Carefully, The Character Of The One You Recommend, Lest Their Misconduct Bring You Shame.

The Rule Of Friendship Means There Should Be Mutual Sympathy Between Them, Each Supplying What The Other Lacks And Trying To Benefit The Other, Always Using Friendly And Sincere Words.

The Precepts Of The Law Are These: To Live Honestly, To Injure No One, And To Give Everyone Else His Due.

Everything Is Alive... Everything Is Interconnected.

The Foolishness Of Old Age Does Not Characterize All Who Are Old, But Only The Foolish.

It Is Virtue Itself That Produces And Sustains Friendship, Not Without Virtue Can Friendship By Any Possibility Exist.

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

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.

I Prefer Tongue-tied Knowledge To Ignorant Loquacity.

Knowing Who You Are

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

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

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

I Am Of The Opinion Which You Have Always Held, That "viva Voce" Voting At Elections Is The Best Method. [lat., Nam Ego In Ista Sum Sententia, Qua Te Fuisse Semper Scio, Nihil Ut Feurit In Suffragiis Voce Melius.]

An Old Man With Something Of The Youth In Him, May Feel Young In Mind And Heart Only.

Who Does Not Know History's First Law To Be That An Author Must Not Dare To Tell Anything But The Truth? And Its Second That He Must Make Bold To Tell The Whole Truth? That There Must Be No Suggestion Of Partiality Anywhere In His Writings? Nor Of Malice?

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

Dissimulation Creeps Gradually Into The Minds Of Men.

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.

Every Animal Loves Itself.

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

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

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

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?

Let The Soldier Yield To The Civilian.

There Exists A Law, Not Written Down Anywhere But Inborn In Our Hearts; A Law Which Comes To Us Not By Training Or Custom Or Reading But By Derivation And Absorption And Adoption From Nature Itself; A Law Which Has Come To Us Not From Theory But From Practice, Not By Instruction But By Natural Intuition. I Refer To The Law Which Lays It Down That, If Our Lives Are Endangered By Plots Or Violence Or Armed Robbers Or Enemies, Any And Every Method Of Protecting Ourselves Is Morally Right.

Persistence In A Single View Has Never Been Regarded As A Merit In Political Leaders.

Taxes Are The Sinews Of The State.

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

Hatred Is Inveterate Anger.

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

Through Ignorance Of What Is Good And What Is Bad, The Life Of Men Is Greatly Perplexed.

It Is A Man's Own Dishonesty, His Crimes, His Wickedness, And Boldness, That Takes Away From Him Soundness Of Mind; These Are The Furies, These The Flames And Firebrands, Of The Wicked.

In A Discussion Of This Kind Our Interest Should Be Centered Not On The Weight Of The Authority But On The Weight Of The Argument. Indeed The Authority Of Those Who Set Out To Teach Is Often An Impediment To Those Who Wish To Learn. They Cease To Use Their Own Judgment And Regard As Gospel Whatever Is Put Forward By Their Chosen Teacher.

When Time And Need Require, We Should Resist With All Our Might, And Prefer Death To Slavery And Disgrace.

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.

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

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

Summer Lasts Not For Ever; Seasons Succeed Each Other.

There Is Nothing More Shocking Than To See Assertion And Approval Dashing Ahead Of Cognition And Perception.

Hatred Is A Settled Anger.

To Disregard What The World Thinks Of Us Is Not Only Arrogant But Utterly Shameless. [lat., Negligere Quid De Se Quisque Sentiat, Non Solum Arrogantis Est, Sed Etiam Omnino Dissoluti.]

To-morrow Will Give Some Food For Thought.

A Thankful Heart Is Not Only The Greatest Virtue But The Parent Of All The Other Virtues.

Were Floods Of Tears To Be Unloosed In Tribute To My Grief, The Doves Of Noah Ne'er Had Roost Nor Found An Olive-leaf.

Politeness And An Affable Address Are Our Best Introduction.

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

Wisdom Is The Only Thing Which Can Relieve Us From The Sway Of The Passions And The Fear Of Danger, And Which Can Teach Us To Bear The Injuries Of Fortune Itself With Moderation, And Which Shows Us All The Ways Which Lead To Tranquility And Peace.

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

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

What Is Permissible Is Not Always Honorable.

There Are No True Friends In Politics.

No True Friends

Life Is Nothing Without Friendship.

The Name Of Peace Is Sweet, The Thing Itself Is Most Salutary.

Fewer Possess Virtue, Than Those Who Wish Us To Believe That They Possess It.

Prudence In Action Avails More Than Wisdom In Conception.

I Am Pleased To Be Praised By A Man So Praised As You, Father. [words Used By Hector.] [lat., Laetus Sum Laudari Me Abs Te, Pater, Laudato Viro.]

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.

Learning Is A Kind Of Natural Food For The Mind.

He Who Suffers, Remembers.

To Give And Receive Advice - The Former With Freedom, And Yet Without Bitterness, The Latter With Patience And Without Irritation - Is Peculiarly Appropriate To Geniune Friendship.

I Never Heard Of An Old Man Forgetting Where He Had Buried His Money. Old People Remember What Interests Them: The Dates Fixed For Their Lawsuits, And The Names Of Their Debtors And Creditors.

In Honorable Dealing You Should Consider What You Intended, Not What You Said Or Thought.

Religion Is Not Removed By Removing Superstition.

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.

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

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

Peace Is Liberty In Tranquillity.

I Criticize By Creation - Not By Finding Fault.

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

While There's Life, There's Hope.

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

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

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

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

Certain Signs Are The Forerunners Of Certain Events.

Silence Is One Of The Great Arts Of Conversation.

All Great Men Are Partially Inspired.

No Obligation To Do The Impossible Is Binding.

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

In Men Of The Highest Character And Noblest Genius There Is To Be Found An Insatiable Desire For Honor, Command, Power, And Glory.

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.

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

It Is Not By Muscle, Speed, Or Physical Dexterity That Great Things Are Achieved, But By Reflection, Force Of Character, And Judgment.

Words Of Wisdom

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

When A Government Becomes Powerful It Is Destructive, Extravagant And Violent; It Is An Usurer Which Takes Bread From Innocent Mouths And Deprives Honorable Men Of Their Substance, For Votes With Which To Perpetuate Itself.

The Shifts Of Fortune Test The Reliability Of Friends.

People Don't Know The Value Of What They Have Until It Is Gone: Freedom Suppressed And Again Regained Bites With Keener Fangs Than Freedom Never Endangered.... Liberty Is Rendered Even More Precious By The Recollection Of Servitude. Don't Wait Till Freedom Is Gone Before You Enjoy, Value, Support, Protect And Make The Most Of It!

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.

Not To Know What Happened Before Means To Remain Forever A Child.

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

For There Is But One Essential Justice Which Cements Society, And One Law Which Establishes This Justice. This Law Is Right Reason, Which Is The True Rule Of All Commandments And Prohibitions. Whoever Neglects This Law, Whether Written Or Unwritten, Is Necessarily Unjust And Wicked.

Crimes Are Not To Be Measured By The Issue Of Events, But By The Bad Intentions Of Men.

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

The False Is Nothing But An Imitation Of The True.

What Is Morally Wrong Can Never Be Advantageous, Even When It Enables You To Make Some Gain That You Believe To Be To Your Advantage. The Mere Act Of Believing That Some Wrongful Course Of Action Constitutes An Advantage Is Pernicious.

Kindness Is Produced By Kindness.

He Who Hangs On The Errors Of The Ignorant Multitude, Must Not Be Counted Among Great Men.

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.

We Are Not Born For Ourselves Alone.

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

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

Cannot People Realize How Large An Income Is Thrift?

Every Man Should Bear His Own Grievances Rather Than Detract From The Comforts Of Another.

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.

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

Do Nothing Twice Over.

Such Are A Well Regulated Militia, Composed Of The Freeholders, Citizen And Husbandman, Who Take Up Arms To Preserve Their Property, As Individuals, And Their Rights As Freemen.

Second Amendment

O Wretched Man, Wretched Not Just Because Of What You Are, But Also Because You Do Not Know How Wretched You Are!

Man's Life Is Ruled By Fortune, Not By Wisdom.

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.

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

I Speak Of That Learning Which Wakes Us Acquainted With The Boundless Extent Of Nature, And The Universe, And Which Even While We Remain In This World, Discovers To Us Both Heaven, Earth, And Sea.

Next To God We Are Nothing. To God We Are Everything.

No One Has Leave To Sin.

Philosophy Is The True Mother Of Science.

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

Trending Author

Alexandra Kosteniuk

Category