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No Sensible Man (among The Many Things That Have Been Written On This Kind) Ever Imputed Inconsistency To Another For Changing His Mind. [lat., Nemo Doctus Unquam (multa Autem De Hoc Genere Scripta Sunt) Mutationem Consili Inconstantiam Dixit Esse.]

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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No Sensible Man (among

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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No Sensible Man (among The Many Things That Have Been Written On This Kind) Ever Imputed Inconsistency To Another For Changing His Mind. [lat., Nemo Doctus Unquam (multa Autem De Hoc Genere Scripta Sunt) Mutationem Consili Inconstantiam Dixit Esse.]

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More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

Life Is Nothing Without Friendship.

It Is Not Enough To Acquire Wisdom, It Is Necessary To Employ It.

Let Us Drink For The Replenishment Of Our Strength, Not For Our Sorrow

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

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

Too Much Liberty Leads Both Men And Nations To Slavery.

The Sinews Of War Are Infinite Money.

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

There Is Nothing God Cannot Do.

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.

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.

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

Nature Herself Makes The Wise Man Rich.

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

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

That Man Is Guilty Of Impertinence Who Considers Not The Circumstances Of Time, Or Engrosses The Conversation, Or Makes Himself The Subject Of His Discourse, Or Pays No Regard To The Company He Is In.

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

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

To Remain Ignorant Of History Is To Remain Forever A Child

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

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

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.

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

Every Animal Loves Itself.

In Anger Nothing Right Nor Judicious Can Be Done.

The Study And Knowledge Of The Universe Would Somehow Be Lame And Defective Were No Practical Results To Follow.

Work Makes A Callus Against Grief.

No Man In His Senses Will Dance.

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.

Genius Is Fostered By Industry.

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

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.

Our Liberality Should Not Exceed Our Ability.

Friendship Embraces Innumerable Ends; Turn Where You Will It Is Ever At Your Side; No Barrier Shuts It Out; It Is Never Untimely And Never In The Way.

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.]

We Forget Our Pleasures, We Remember Our Sufferings.

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.

The First Bond Of Society Is Marriage.

Silence Is One Of The Great Arts Of Conversation.

The Greater The Difficulty, The Greater The Glory.

Nothing Is So Secure As That Money Will Not Defeat It.

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

Life Is Short, But Art Lives Forever.

We Should Be Careful That Our Benevolence Does Not Exceed Our Means.

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.

A Good Orator Is Pointed And Impassioned.

Self Improvement

Public Speaking

There Are Gems Of Thought That Are Ageless And Eternal.

The Wise Man Never Loses His Temper.

Rashness Attends Youth, As Prudence Does Old Age.

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

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

Nothing Is More Noble, Nothing More Venerable Than Fidelity. Faithfulness And Truth Are The Most Sacred Excellences And Endowments Of The Human Mind.

Nothing Is So Unpredictable As A Throw Of The Dice, And Yet Every Man Who Plays Often Will At Some Time Or Other Make A Venus-cast: Now And Then He Indeed Will Make It Twice And Even Thrice In Succession. Are We Going To Be So Feebleminded Then As To Aver That Such A Thing Happened By The Personal Intervention Of Venus Rather Than By Pure Luck?

A Bachelor's Bed Is The Most Pleasant.

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.

If We Are Forced, At Every Hour, To Watch Or Listen To Horrible Events, This Constant Stream Of Ghastly Impressions Will Deprive Even The Most Delicate Among Us Of All Respect For Humanity.

It Is Fortune, Not Wisdom, That Rules Man's Life.

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

Philosophy Is The True Mother Of Science.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Though Laughter Is Allowable, A Horse-laugh Is Abominable.

It Is A Great Thing To Know Your Vices.

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.

Memory Is The Receptacle And Sheath Of All Knowledge

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

Wisdom Is Not Only To Be Acquired, But Enjoyed.

Extreme Justice Is Extreme Injustice.

By Doubting We Come At Truth.

All Great Men Are Partially Inspired.

I Prefer The Wisdom Of The Uneducated To The Folly Of The Loquacious.

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

Certain Signs Are The Forerunners Of Certain Events.

Non Nobis Solum Nati Sumus. (not For Ourselves Alone Are We Born.)

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

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

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

The Illustrious And Noble Ought To Place Before Them Certain Rules And Regulations, Not Less For Their Hours Of Leisure And Relaxation Than For Those Of Business.

Rules And Regulations

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

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

Falsehoods Border On Truths.

It Is Not Enough Merely Possess Virtue, As If It Were An Art; It Should Be Practiced.

Great Inspirational

Religion Is The Pious Worship Of God.

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.

The Strictest Law Often Causes The Most Serious Wrong

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

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.

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

The Purpose Of Education Is To Free The Student From The Tyranny Of The Present.

Purpose Of Education

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

Virtue Is Its Own Reward.

Not In Opinion But In Nature Is Law Founded.

Trust No One Unless You Have Eaten Much Salt With Him.

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

There Is No Place More Delightful Than Home.

There Is No Statement So Absurd That No Philosopher Will Make It.

I Am Much Beholden To Old Age, Which Has Increased My Eagerness For Conversation In Proportion As It Has Lessened My Appetites Of Hunger And Thirst.

Hunger And Thirst

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.

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

Liberty Is Rendered Even More Precious By The Recollection Of Servitude.

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

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

There Is Wickedness In The Intention Of Wickedness, Even Though It Be Not Perpetrated In The Act.

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

True Nobility Is Exempt From Fear.

Great Is The Power Of Habit. It Teaches Us To Bear Fatigue And To Despise Wounds And Pain.

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

I Shall Always Consider The Best Guesser The Best Prophet.

All Men Have A Feeling, That They Would Rather You Told Them A Civil Lie Than Give Them A Point Blank Refusal.... If You Make A Promise, The Thing Is Still Uncertain, Depends On A Future Day, And Concerns But Few People; But If You Refuse You Alienate People To A Certainty And At Once, And Many People Too.

Every Generous Action Loves The Public View; Yet No Theatre For Virtue Is Equal To A Consciousness Of It.

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

Do Not Blame Caesar, Blame The People Of Rome Who Have So Enthusiastically Acclaimed And Adored Him And Rejoiced In Their Loss Of Freedom And Danced In His Path And Gave Him Triumphal Processions. Blame The People Who Hail Him When He Speaks In The Forum Of The 'new, Wonderful Good Society' Which Shall Now Be Rome, Interpreted To Mean 'more Money, More Ease, More Security, More Living Fatly At The Expense Of The Industrious.'

Let The Punishment Match The Offense.

He Is Sometimes Slave Who Should Be Master; And Sometimes Master Who Should Be Slave.

There Is Pleasure In Calm Remembrance Of A Past Sorrow.

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

Your Enemies Can Kill You, But Only Your Friends Can Hurt You.

Men Of Different Tastes Have Different Pursuits.

What Is Permissible Is Not Always Honorable.

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

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

That Which Is Usually Called Dotage Is Not The Weak Point Of All Old Men, But Only Of Such As Are Distinguished By Their Levity.

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

History Is The Witness That Testifies To The Passing Of Time.

History Of Life

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

Pleasant Is The Recollection Of Dangers Past.

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

Probabilities Direct The Conduct Of The Wise Man.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Neither Can Embellishments Of Language Be Found Without Arrangement And Expression Of Thoughts, Nor Can Thoughts Be Made To Shine Without The Light Of Language.

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

We Are Born Poets. We Become Orators.

The Remembrance Of Past Misery Is Sweet.

A Youth Of Sensuality And Intemperance Delivers Over To Old Age A Worn-out Body.

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

Ill Gotten Gains Will Be Ill Spent.

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

Friendship Is Nothing Else Than An Accord In All Things, Human And Divine, Conjoined With Mutual Goodwill And Affection.

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

There Were Poets Before Homer.

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

He Is Rich Who Wishes No More Than He Has.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Know The Laws Is Not To Memorize Their Letter But To Grasp Their Full Force And Meaning.

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

Our Country Is Wherever We Are Well Off. [lat., Patria Est, Ubicunque Est Bene.]

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.]

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.

Not Only Is There An Art In Knowing A Thing, But Also A Certain Art In Teaching It.

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

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.

Gratitude Is Not Only The Greatest Of Virtues, But The Parent Of All The Others.

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

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

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.

He Is An Eloquent Man Who Can Treat Humble Subjects With Delicacy, Lofty Things Impressively, And Moderate Things Temperately.

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

Death Darkens His Eyes, And Unplumes His Wings, Yet The Sweetest Song Is The Last He Sings: Live So, My Love, That When Death Shall Come, Swan-like And Sweet It May Waft Thee Home.

The Evil Implanted In Man By Nature Spreads So Imperceptibly, When The Habit Of Wrong-doing Is Unchecked, That He Himself Can Set No Limit To His Shamelessness.

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.

Our Generosity Never Should Exceed Our Abilities.

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

The Searching-out And Thorough Investigation Of Truth Ought To Be The Primary Study Of Man.

Personal Growth

The Whole Glory Of Virtue Resides In Activity.

While There's Life, There's Hope.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Ye Immortal Gods! Where In The World Are We?

Brevity Is A Great Charm Of Eloquence.

I Prefer Tongue-tied Knowledge To Ignorant Loquacity.

Knowing Who You Are

What Times! What Manners!

For There Is Assuredly Nothing Dearer To A Man Than Wisdom, And Though Age Takes Away All Else, It Undoubtedly Brings Us That.

It Was Fear That Was Then Making You A Good Citizen, Which Is Never A Lasting Teacher Of Duty.

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.

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

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

Can There Be Greater Foolishness Than The Respect You Pay To People Collectively When You Despise Them Individually?

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

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

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

No Phase Of Life, Whether Public Or Private, Can Be Free From Duty.

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