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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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Let Us Not Listen

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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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.

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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.

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

No Sensible Man Ever Imputes Inconsistency To Another For Changing His Minds.

Nothing Is So Unbelievable That Oratory Cannot Make It Acceptable.

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

There Are No True Friends In Politics.

No True Friends

We Are Born Poets. We Become Orators.

A Happy Life Consists In Tranquility Of Mind.

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.

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

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

Not To Know What Happened Before You Were Born Is To Be A Child Forever. For What Is The Time Of A Man, Except It Be Interwoven With That Memory Of Ancient Things Of A Superior Age?

Friendship Is The Only Point In Human Affairs Concerning The Benefit Of Which All, With One Voice, Agree.

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

He Who Suffers, Remembers.

Cannot People Realize How Large An Income Is Thrift?

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

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

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

The Human Mind Ever Longs For Occupation.

The Absolute Good Is Not A Matter Of Opinion But Of Nature.

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

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

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

Favours Out Of Place I Regard As Positive Injuries.

In The Master There Is A Servant, In The Servant A Master.

Leisure With Dignity.

That Is Probable Which For The Most Part Usually Comes To Pass, Or Which Is A Part Of The Ordinary Beliefs Of Mankind.

Those Wars Are Unjust Which Are Undertaken Without Provocation. For Only A War Waged For Revenge Or Defence Can Actually Be Just.

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

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

No One Dies Too Soon Who Has Finished The Course Of Perfect Virtue.

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

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?

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.

Time Is The Herald Of Truth.

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

Judge Not By The Number, But By The Weight.

Secret Enmities Are More To Be Feared Than Open Ones.

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

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

I Will Go Further, And Assert That Nature Without Culture Can Often Do More To Deserve Praise Than Culture Without Nature.

Let A Man Practice The Profession Which He Best Knows.

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

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

Each Part Of Life Has Its Own Pleasures. Each Has Its Own Abundant Harvest, To Be Garnered In Season. We May Grow Old In Body, But We Need Never Grow Old In Mind And Spirit. No One Is As Old As To Think He Or She Cannot Live One More Year.

Nature Loves Nothing Solitary, And Always Reaches Out To Something, As A Support, Which Ever In The Sincerest Friend Is Most Delightful.

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

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

Friends Are Proved By Adversity.

Hatred Is A Settled Anger.

We Should Never So Entirely Avoid Danger As To Appear Irresolute And Cowardly; But, At The Same Time, We Should Avoid Unnecessarily Exposing Ourselves To Danger, Than Which Nothing Can Be More Foolish.

The Existence Of Virtue Depends Entirely Upon Its Use.

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

While The Sick Man Has Life, There Is Hope.

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.

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

Hatred Is Inveterate Anger.

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

We Are Not Born For Ourselves Alone.

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

Wars, Therefore, Are To Be Undertaken For This End, That We May Live In Peace, Without Being Injured; But When We Obtain The Victory, We Must Preserve Those Enemies Who Behaved Without Cruelty Or Inhumanity During The War.

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.

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

Dogs Wait For Us Faithfully.

We Were Born To Unite With Our Fellow Men, And To Join In Community With The Human Race.

Life Without Learning Is Death.

I Have Never Yet Known A Poet Who Did Not Think Himself Super-excellent.

As Thou Sowest, So Shalt Thou Reap.

This Seems To Be Advanced As The Surest Basis For Our Belief In The Existence Of Gods, That There Is No Race So Uncivilized, No One In The World So Barbarous That His Mind Has No Inkling Of A Belief In Gods.

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

The Harvest Of Old Age Is The Recollection And Abundance Of Blessing Previously Secured.

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

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

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

Thrift Is A Great Revenue.

It Is The Character Of A Brave And Resolute Man Not To Be Ruffled By Adversity And Not To Desert His Post.

Do Nothing Twice Over.

There Never Was A Great Soul That Did Not Have Some Divine Inspiration.

Divine Inspiration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Remain Ignorant Of History Is To Remain Forever A Child

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

An Agreement Of Rash Men (a Conspiracy).

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.

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.

Excessive Liberty Leads Both Nations And Individuals Into Excessive Slavery. [lat., Nimia Libertas Et Populis Et Privatis In Nimiam Servitutem Cadit.]

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

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.

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

Good Intentions

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

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

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

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

The Magistrates Are The Ministers For The Laws, The Judges Their Interpreters, The Rest Of Us Are Servants Of The Law, That We All May Be Free.

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

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

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

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

For Even If The Allotted Space Of Life Be Short, It Is Long Enough In Which To Live Honorably And Well.

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.

An Unjust Peace Is Better Than A Just War.

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

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

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.

He Is Rich Who Wishes No More Than He Has.

The Man Who Commands Efficiently Must Have Obeyed Others In The Past, And The Man Who Obeys Dutifully Is Worthy Of Someday Being A Commander.

Old Age Is By Nature Rather Talkative.

The Multitude Of Fools Is A Protection To The Wise.

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

For How Many Things, Which For Our Own Sake We Should Never Do, Do We Perform For The Sake Of Our Friends.

People Do Not Understand What A Great Revenue Economy Is.

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

Thus Nature Has No Love For Solitude, And Always Leans, As It Were, On Some Support; And The Sweetest Support Is Found In The Most Intimate Friendship.

The Great Theatre For Virtue Is Conscience.

There Is No Place More Delightful Than Home.

No Well-informed Person Has Declared A Change Of Opinion To Be Inconstancy.

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.

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.

Politeness And An Affable Address Are Our Best Introduction.

But The Night Mother Is Mother To All! It Is Her Voice We Follow! Her Will! Would You Dare Risk Disobedience? And Surely... Punishment?

Knowledge Which Is Divorced From Justice, May Be Called Cunning Rather Than Wisdom.

Vivere Est Cogitare. (to Think Is To Live)

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

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

I Do Not Wish To Die: But I Care Not If I Were Dead. [lat., Emori Nolo: Sed Me Esse Mortuum Nihil Aestimo.]

Summer Lasts Not For Ever; Seasons Succeed Each Other.

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

This Is The Part Of A Great Man, After He Has Maturely Weighed All Circumstances, To Punish The Guilty, To Spare The Many, And In Every State Of Fortune Not To Depart From An Upright, Virtuous Conduct.

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

In Extraordinary Events Ignorance Of Their Causes Produces Astonishment.

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

Justice Is The Crowning Glory Of The Virtues.

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

Morals Today Are Corrupted By Our Worship Of Riches.

Anger Should Never Appear In Awarding Punishment.

He Takes The Greatest Ornament From Friendship, Who Takes Modesty From It. [lat., Maximum Ornamentum Amicitiae Tollit, Qui Ex Ea Tollit Verecudiam.]

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

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.

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

If You Wish To Remove Avarice You Must Remove Its Mother, Luxuries. [lat., Avaritiam Si Tollere Vultis, Mater Ejus Est Tollenda, Luxuries.]

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

Nature Has Inclined Us To Love Men.

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

The More Laws, The Less Justice.

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

The Higher Our Position The More Modestly We Should Behave.

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

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

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?

We Make Allowance For Necessity.

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

If You Would Abolish Covetousness, You Must Abolish Its Mother, Profusion.

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.

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

Loyalty Is What We Seek In Friendship.

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

Slowly And Imperceptibly Old Age Comes Creeping On.

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

Like Readily Consorts With Like.

Nothing Is Difficult In The Eyes Of A Lover.

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

A War Is Never Undertaken By The Ideal State, Except In Defense Of Its Honor Or Its Safety.

Our Span Of Life Is Brief, But Is Long Enough For Us To Live Well And Honestly.

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

Friends, Though Absent, Are Still Present.

Some Men Make A Womanish Complaint That It Is A Great Misfortune To Die Before Our Time. I Would Ask What Time? Is It That Of Nature? But She, Indeed, Has Lent Us Life, As We Do A Sum Of Money, Only No Certain Day Is Fixed For Payment. What Reason Then To Complain If She Demands It At Pleasure, Since It Was On This Condition That You Received It.

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

In The Very Books In Which Philosophers Bid Us Scorn Fame, They Inscribe Their Names.

The Greatest Pleasures Are Only Narrowly Separated From Disgust.

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

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.

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

We Ought To Regard Amiability As The Quality Of Woman, Dignity That Of Man.

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

Nothing Troubles You For Which You Do Not Yearn.

If The Oarsmen Of A Fast-moving Ship Suddenly Cease To Row, The Suspension Of The Driving Force Of The Oars Doesn't Prevent The Vessel From Continuing To Move On Its Course. And With A Speech It Is Much The Same. After He Has Finished Reciting The Document, The Speaker Will Still Be Able To Maintain The Same Tone Without A Break, Borrowing Its Momentum And Impulse From The Passage He Has Just Read Out.

A Community Is Like The Ones Who Govern It.

Probability Is The Very Guide Of Life.

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

Law Stands Mute In The Midst Of Arms.

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

Vicious Habits Are So Great A Stain To Human Nature, And So Odious In Themselves, That Every Person Actuated By Right Reason Would Avoid Them, Though He Were Sure They Would Be Always Concealed Both From God And Man, And Had No Future Punishment Entailed Upon Them.

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.]

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?

Ability Without Honor Is Useless.

Endless Money Forms The Sinews Of War. [lat., Nervi Belli Pecunia Infinita.]

Care Should Be Taken That The Punishment Does Not Exceed The Guilt; And Also That Some Men Do Not Suffer For Offenses For Which Others Are Not Even Indicted.

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

Armed Forces Abroad Are Of Little Value Unless There Is Prudent Counsel At Home

Do Not Hold The Delusion That Your Advancement Is Accomplished By Crushing Others.

We Should Be As Careful Of Our Words As Of Our Actions.

The World Has Not Yet Learned The Riches Of Frugality.

The Real Friend Is Another Self.

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