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

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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It Is Difficult To

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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

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All The Arts Of Refinement Have Mutual Kinship.

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

Nothing Is So Unbelievable That Oratory Cannot Make It Acceptable.

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.

There Is No Grief Which Time Does Not Lessen And Soften. [lat., Nullus Dolor Est Quem Non Longinquitas Temporis Minuat Ac Molliat.]

Not To Know What Happened Before One Was Born Is Always To Be A Child.

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.

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

They Who Dare To Ask Anything Of A Friend, By Their Very Request Seem To Imply That They Would Do Anything For The Sake Of That Friend.

In The Approach To Virtue There Are Many Steps.

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

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.

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

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

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

Nothing Is More Noble, Nothing More Venerable Than Fidelity.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

It Is Certain That Memory Contains Not Only Philosophy, But All The Arts And All That Appertain To The Use Of Life.

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

Men Of Different Tastes Have Different Pursuits.

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

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.]

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

Virtue Is Uniform, Conformable To Reason, And Of Unvarying Consistency; Nothing Can Be Added To It That Can Make It More Than Virtue; Nothing Can Be Taken From It, And The Name Of Virtue Be Left.

A Mental Stain Can Neither Be Blotted Out By The Passage Of Time Nor Washed Away By Any Waters.

There Has Never Been A Poet Or Orator Who Thought Another Better Than Himself.

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

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

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.

Freedom Is Participation In Power.

What Society Does To Its Children, So Will Its Children Do To Society.

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.

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

It Is Necessary For A Senator To Be Thoroughly Acquainted With The Constitution; And This Is A Knowledge Of The Most Extensive Nature; A Matter Of Science, Of Diligence, Of Reflection, Without Which No Senator Can Possibly Be Fit For His Office.

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

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

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?

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

To Give Counsel, As Well As To Take It, Is A Feature Of True Friendship.

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

Unraveling The Web Of Penelope.

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

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

It Is Difficult To Remember All, And Ungracious To Omit Any.

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

How Much In Love With Himself, And That Too Without A Rival!

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.

Nothing Dries Sooner Than A Tear.

Let The Welfare Of The People Be The Ultimate Law.

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.

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

Let Every Man Practice The Art That He Knows Best.

Aristoteles Quidem Ait: 'omnes Ingeniosos Melancholicos Esse.' Aristotle Says That All Men Of Genius Are Melancholy.

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

Probabilities Direct The Conduct Of The Wise Man.

For One Day Spent Well, And Agreeably To Your Precepts, Is Preferable To An Eternity Of Error.

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.

No One Sees What Is Before His Feet: We All Gaze At The Stars. [lat., Quod Est Ante Pedes Nemo Spectat: Coeli Scrutantur Plagas.]

If I Am Mistaken In My Opinion That The Human Soul Is Immortal, I Willingly Err; Nor Would I Have This Pleasant Error Extorted From Me; And If, As Some Minute Philosophers Suppose, Death Should Deprive Me Of My Being, I Need Not Fear The Raillery Of Those Pretended Philosophers When They Are No More.

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.

Pardon Is Granted To Necessity.

More Laws, Less Justice.

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

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

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.

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

Victory Is By Nature Insolent And Haughty.

There Is No Place More Delightful Than Home.

It Is Better To Receive Than To Do Injury.

The Existence Of Virtue Depends Entirely Upon Its Use.

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

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

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

The Sinews Of War Are Infinite Money.

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

For Every Man's Nature Is Concealed With Many Folds Of Disguise, And Covered As It Were With Various Veils. His Brows, His Eyes, And Very Often His Countenance, Are Deceitful, And His Speech Is Most Commonly A Lie.

In Times Of War, The Law Falls Silent.

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

When Trying A Case [the Famous Judge] L. Cassius Never Failed To Inquire "who Gained By It?" Man's Character Is Such That No One Undertakes Crimes Without Hope Of Gain.

After Victory, You Have More Enemies.

In Extraordinary Events Ignorance Of Their Causes Produces Astonishment.

The Hours Pass And The Days And The Months And The Years, And The Past Time Never Returns.

There Is No Treasure The Which May Be Compared Unto A Faithful Friend; Gold Some Decayeth, And Worldly Wealth Consumeth, And Wasteth In The Winde; But Love Once Planted In A Perfect And Pure Minde Indureth Weale And Woe; The Frownes Of Fortune, Come They Never So Unkinde, Cannot The Same Overthrowe.

To Freemen, Threats Are Impotent.

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

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

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

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.

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

Taxes Are The Sinews Of The State.

You Must Therefore Love Me, Myself, And Not My Circumstances, If We Are To Be Real Friends.

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

Glory Follows Virtue As If It Were Its Shadow.

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

The More Peculiarly His Own A Man's Character Is, The Better It Fits Him.

Through Doubt We Arrive At The Truth.

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

The Function Of Wisdom Is To Discriminate Between Good And Evil.

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

Dogs Wait For Us Faithfully.

A S Laws Multiply, Injustice Increases.

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

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

All Great Men Are Partially Inspired.

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

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.

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

Modesty Is That Feeling By Which Honorable Shame Acquires A Valuable And Lasting Authority.

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

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 Liar Is Not Believed Even Though He Tell The Truth.

Telling The Truth

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

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.

To Reduce Man To The Duties Of His Own City, And To Disengage Him From Duties To The Members Of Other Cities, Is To Break The Universal Society Of The Human Race.

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!

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

I Criticize By Creation - Not By Finding Fault.

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

He Who Obeys With Modesty Appears Worthy Of Being Some Day A Commander.

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

A Mind Without Instruction Can No More Bear Fruit Than Can A Field, However Fertile, Without Cultivation.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Everyone Has His Besetting Sin.

All The Arts, Which Have A Tendency To Raise Man In The Scale Of Being, Have A Certain Common Band Of Union, And Are Connected, If I May Be Allowed To Say So, By Blood-relationship With One Another.

Old Age: The Crown Of Life, Our Play's Last Act.

It Is A Strong Proof Of Men Knowing Most Things Before Birth, That When Mere Children They Grasp Innumerable Facts With Such Speed As To Show That They Are Not Then Taking Them In For The First Time, But Are Remembering And Recalling Them.

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

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

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

Rashness Is The Companion Of Youth, Prudence Of Old Age.

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?

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

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 Whole Of Virtue Consists In Its Practice.

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

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

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

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

That Which Leads Us To The Performance Of Duty By Offering Pleasure As Its Reward, Is Not Virtue, But A Deceptive Copy And Imitation Of Virtue. [lat., Nam Quae Voluptate, Quasi Mercede Aliqua, Ad Officium Impellitur, Ea Non Est Virtus Sed Fallax Imitatio Simulatioque Virtutis.]

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

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.

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

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.

You May Never Be Less Alone Than When You Are Alone.

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

The Dutifulness Of Children Is The Foundation Of All Virtues.

Prudence In Action Avails More Than Wisdom In Conception.

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

Men Think They May Justly Do That For Which They Have A Precedent.

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.

A Sensual And Intemperate Youth Hands Over A Worn-out Body To Old Age. [lat., Libidinosa Etenim Et Intemperans Adolescentiam Effoetum Corpus Tradit Senectuti.]

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.

In Everything Truth Surpasses The Imitation And Copy.

This Wine Is Forty Years Old. It Certainly Doesn't Show Its Age.

Loyalty Is What We Seek In Friendship.

What Sweetness Is Left In Life, If You Take Away Friendship? Robbing Life Of Friendship Is Like Robbing The World Of The Sun. A True Friend Is More To Be Esteemed Than Kinsfolk.

Justice Renders To Every One His Due.

This Is A Proof Of A Well-trained Mind, To Rejoice In What Is Good And To Grieve At The Opposite.

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.]

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

There Is Nothing God Cannot Do.

Let Flattery, The Handmaid Of The Vices, Be Far Removed (from Friendship). [lat., Assentatio, Vitiorum Adjutrix, Procul Amoveatur.]

The Greatest Pleasures Are Only Narrowly Separated From Disgust.

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

Rashness Attends Youth, As Prudence Does Old Age.

Rashness Belongs To Youth; Prudence To Old Age.

Death Is Dreadful To The Man Whose All Is Extinguished With His Life; But Not To Him Whose Glory Never Can Die.

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

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

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

There Is No One So Old As To Not Think They May Live A Day Longer.

What Is Permissible Is Not Always Honorable.

Dum Spiro, Spero- As Long As I Breathe, I Hope.

Tall Oaks Grow From Little Acorns.testing. This Is The Text Of An Item. Testing. Origin. Testing. Quoted. Testing. Source. The Diligent Farmer Plants Trees, Of Which He Himself Will Never See The Fruit.

By Doubting We Come At Truth.

Prudence Is The Knowledge Of Things To Be Sought, And Those To Be Shunned.

He Who Has A Garden And A Library Wants For Nothing.

Thus In The Beginning The World Was So Made That Certain Signs Come Before Certain Events.

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

The Recovery Of Freedom Is So Splendid A Thing That We Must Not Shun Even Death When Seeking To Recover It.

There Are No True Friends In Politics.

No True Friends

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.

Our Minds Are Rendered Buoyant By Exercise.

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.

No Man Can Be Brave Who Thinks Pain The Greatest Evil; Nor Temperate, Who Considers Pleasure The Highest Good.

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

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

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