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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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Hours And Days And

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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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.

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More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

Let Reason Govern Desire.

As Thou Sowest, So Shalt Thou Reap.

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

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

The Real Friend Is Another Self.

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.

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.

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.

Let The Welfare Of The People Be The Ultimate Law.

It Is A Crime To Put A Roman Citizen In Chains, It Is An Enormity To Flog One, Sheer Murder To Slay One: What, Then, Shall I Say Of Crucifixion? It Is Impossible To Find The Word For Such An Abomination.

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.

A Bachelor's Bed Is The Most Pleasant.

An Intemperate, Disorderly Youth Will Bring To Old Age, A Feeble And Worn-out Body.

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

Man Was Born For Two Things--thinking And Acting.

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.

History Is The Teacher Of Life

Brevity Is A Great Charm Of Eloquence.

Diligence Which, As It Avails In All Things, Is Also Of The Utmost Moment In Pleading Causes. Diligence Is To Be Particularly Cultivated By Us; It Is To Be Constantly Exerted; It Is Capable Of Effecting Almost Everything.

Grief Is Not In The Nature Of Things, But In Opinion.

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.

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.

There Is, I Know Not How, A Certain Presage, As It Were, Of A Future Existence; And This Takes The Deepest Root, And Is Most Discoverable, In The Greatest Geniuses And Most Exalted Souls.

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

Natural Environment

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?

Let Each Man Have According To His Deserts.

Thou Knowest How Numerous This Tribe Is, How United And How Powerful In The Assemblies. I Will Plead In A Low Voice So That Only The Judges May Hear, For Instigators Are Not Lacking To Stir Up The Crowd Against Me, And Against All The Best Citizens. To Scorn, In The Interest Of The Republic, This Multitude Of Jews So Often Turbulent In The Assemblies Shows A Singular Strength Of Mind. The Money Is In The Treasury; They Do Not Accuse Us Of Theft; They Seek To Stir Up Hatreds.

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

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

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

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

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

Guilt Is Present In The Very Hesitation, Even Though The Deed Be Not Committed.

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

The First Bond Of Society Is The Marriage Tie; The Next Our Children; Then The Whole Family Of Our House, And All Things In Common.

The Most Evident Difference Between Man And Animals Is This: The Beast, In As Much As It Is Largely Motivated By The Senses And With Little Perception Of The Past Or Future, Lives Only For The Present. But Man, Because He Is Endowed With Reason By Which He Is Able To Perceive Relationships, Sees The Causes Of Things, Understands The Reciprocal Nature Of Cause And Effect, Makes Analogies, Easily Surveys The Whole Course Of His Life, And Makes The Necessary Preparations For Its Conduct.

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

You Must Become An Old Man In Good Time If You Wish To Be An Old Man Long. [lat., Mature Fieri Senem, Si Diu Velis Esses Senex.]

Anger Should Never Appear In Awarding Punishment.

My Precept To All Who Build, Is, That The Owner Should Be An Ornament To The House, And Not The House To The Owner.

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

All Great Men Are Partially Inspired.

Let War Yield To Peace, Laurels To Paeans.

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.  

The Good Of The People Is The Greatest Law.

A Letter Does Not Blush.

Liberty Consists In The Power Of Doing That Which Is Permitted By The Law.

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

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

Confidence Is That Feeling By Which The Mind Embarks In Great And Honorable Courses With A Sure Hope And Trust In Itself.

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.

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

They Are Eloquent Who Can Speak Low Things Acutely, And Of Great Things With Dignity, And Of Moderate Things With Temper.

While The Sick Man Has Life, There Is Hope.

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

Generosity Should Never Exceed Ability.

Death Is Not Natural For A State As It Is For A Human Being, For Whom Death Is Not Only Necessary, But Frequently Even Desirable.

Nothing Contributes To The Entertainment Of The Reader More, Than The Change Of Times And The Vicissitudes Of Fortune.

Time Destroys The Speculation Of Men, But It Confirms Nature.

Though Silence Is Not Necessarily An Admission, It Is Not A Denial, Either.

The Pursuit, Even Of The Best Things, Ought To Be Calm And Tranquil.

We Must Be Ever On The Search For Some Persons Whom We Shall Love And Who Will Love Us In Return. If Good Will And Affection Are Taken Away, Every Joy Is Taken From Life.

The Whole Of Virtue Consists In Its Practice.

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

Men Decide Far More Problems By Hate, Love, Lust, Rage, Sorrow, Joy, Hope, Fear, Illusion Or Some Other Inward Emotion, Than By Reality, Authority, Any Legal Standard, Judicial Precedent, Or Statute.

Care Must Be Taken That The Punishment Does Not Exceed The Offence.

There Is No Praise In Being Upright, Where No One Can, Or Tries To Corrupt You.

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

It Is A Common Saying That Many Pecks Of Salt Must Be Eaten Before The Duties Of Friendship Can Be Discharged.

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

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.

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

Nor Am I Ashamed, As Some Are, To Confess My Ignorance Of Those Matters With Which I Am Unacquainted.

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

Not In Opinion But In Nature Is Law Founded.

Man Is His Own Worst Enemy.

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

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

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

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

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

Nothing Is So Strongly Fortified That It Cannot Be Taken By Money.

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

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

Nothing So Cements And Holds Together All The Parts Of A Society As Faith Or Credit, Which Can Never Be Kept Up Unless Men Are Under Some Force Or Necessity Of Honestly Paying What They Owe To One Another.

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?

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.

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.

Wisdom Is Not Only To Be Acquired, But Enjoyed.

If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written A Shorter Letter.

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

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.

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

So Near Is Falsehood To Truth That A Wise Man Would Do Well Not To Trust Himself On The Narrow Edge.

The Science Of Love Is The Philosophy Of The Heart

What Times! What Manners!

Nothing Is More Disgraceful Than Insincerity.

Freedom Is A Man's Natural Power Of Doing What He Pleases, So Far As He Is Not Prevented By Force Or Law.

Favours Out Of Place I Regard As Positive Injuries.

There Are More Men Ennobled By Study Than By Nature.

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

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.

Every Animal Loves Itself.

Friendship Is Given Us By Nature, Not To Favor Vice, But To Aid Virtue.

War Should Be Undertaken In Such A Way As To Show That Its Only Object Is Peace.

Nature Has Inclined Us To Love Men.

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.]

Prosperity Demands Of Us More Prudence And Moderation Than Adversity.

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

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 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.

Sweet Is The Recollection Of Difficulties Overcome.

Apollo, Sacred Guard Of Earth's True Core, Whence First Came Frenzied, Wild Prophetic Word.

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

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

Let The Punishment Match The Offense.

More Law, Less Justice.

What Is Dishonestly Got Vanishes In Profligacy.

We Forget Our Pleasures, We Remember Our Sufferings.

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

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

It Shows A Brave And Resolute Spirit Not To Be Agitated In Exciting Circumstances.

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!

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.

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.

The Last Day Does Not Bring Extinction To Us, But Change Of Place. [lat., Supremus Ille Dies Non Nostri Extinctionem Sed Commutationem Affert Loci.]

Friends Are Proved By Adversity.

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

Love Is The Attempt To Form A Friendship Inspired By Beauty.

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

In So Far As The Mind Is Stronger Than The Body, So Are The Ills Contracted By The Mind More Severe Than Those Contracted By The Body.

The Best Armour Of Old Age Is A Well Spent Life Preceding It; A Life Employed In The Pursuit Of Useful Knowledge, In Honourable Actions And The Practice Of Virtue; In Which He Who Labours To Improve Himself From His Youth, Will In Age Reap The Happiest Fruits Of Them; Not Only Because These Never Leave A Man, Not Even In The Extremest Old Age; But Because A Conscience Bearing Witness That Our Life Was Well-spent, Together With The Remembrance Of Past Good Actions, Yields An Unspeakable Comfort To The Soul

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

The Safety Of The People Shall Be The Highest Law.

Like Readily Consorts With Like.

Ill Gotten Gains Will Be Ill Spent.

As I Approve Of A Youth That Has Something Of The Old Man In Him, So I Am No Less Pleased With An Old Man That Has Something Of The Youth. He That Follows This Rule May Be Old In Body, But Can Never Be So In Mind.

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

I Prefer Silent Prudence To Loquacious Folly. [lat., Malo Indisertam Prudentiam, Quam Loquacem Stultitiam.]

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.

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

No One Has Leave To Sin.

Hatred Is Settled Anger.

I Have Always Been Of The Opinion That Unpopularity Earned By Doing What Is Right Is Not Unpopularity At All, But Glory.

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

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

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.

Secret Enmities Are More To Be Feared Than Open Ones.

Vivere Est Cogitare. (to Think Is To Live)

Piety And Holiness Of Life Will Propitiate The Gods. [lat., Deos Placatos Pietas Efficiet Et Sanctitas.]

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.

Nothing Stands Out So Conspicuously, Or Remains So Firmly Fixed In The Memory, As Something Which You Have Blundered.

A Man Has No Enemy Worse Than Himself.

The World Has Not Yet Learned The Riches Of Frugality.

To Stumble Twice Against The Same Stone, Is A Proverbial Disgrace. [lat., Culpa Enim Illa, Bis Ad Eundem, Vulgari Reprehensa Proverbio Est.]

Ye Immortal Gods! Where In The World Are We?

Virtue Is A Habit Of The Mind, Consistent With Nature And Moderation And Reason.

It Is Not A Virtue, But A Deceptive Copy And Imitation Of Virtue, When We Are Led To The Performance Of Duty By Pleasure As Its Recompense.

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

Democritus Maintains That There Can Be No Great Poet Without A Spite Of Madness.

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

"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."

Never Was A Government That Was Not Composed Of Liars, Malefactors And Thieves.

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

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

There Is No Mortal Whom Pain And Disease Do Not Reach.

I Prefer Tongue-tied Knowledge To Ignorant Loquacity.

Knowing Who You Are

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

Friendship Improves Happiness And Abates Misery, By The Doubling Of Our Joy And The Dividing Of Our Grief.

Saving The Virtues Includes All Other Advantages

What Then Is Freedom? The Power To Live As One Wishes.

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.

Whatever Is Graceful Is Virtuous, And Whatever Is Virtuous Is Graceful.

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 Wise Man Does Nothing By Constraint.

The Shifts Of Fortune Test The Reliability Of Friends.

Virtue And Decency Are So Nearly Related That It Is Difficult To Separate Them From Each Other But In Our Imagination.

But In Every Matter The Consensus Of Opinion Among All Nations Is To Be Regarded As The Law Of Nature.

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 Function Of Wisdom Is To Discriminate Between Good And Evil.

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

The Greatest Pleasures Are Only Narrowly Separated From Disgust.

No One Dances Sober, Unless He Is Insane.

All Action Is Of The Mind And The Mirror Of The Mind Is The Face, Its Index The Eyes.

A Good Orator Is Pointed And Impassioned.

Self Improvement

Public Speaking

Any Man Can Make A Mistake; Only A Fool Keeps Making The Same One.

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

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

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.

Justice Is The Set And Constant Purpose Which Gives Every Man His Due.

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

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

Life Without Learning Is Death.

Pleasure Blinds (so To Speak) The Eyes Of The Mind, And Has No Fellowship With Virtue.

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

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

What Is So Beneficial To The People As Liberty, Which We See Not Only To Be Greedily Sought After By Men, But Also By Beasts, And To Be Prepared In All Things.

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

Man's Best Support Is A Very Dear Friend.

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