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Other Relaxations Are Peculiar To Certain Times, Places And Stages Of Life, But The Study Of Letters Is The Nourishment Of Our Youth, And The Joy Of Our Old Age. They Throw An Additional Splendor On Prosperity, And Are The Resource And Consolation Of Adversity; They Delight At Home, And Are No Embarrassment Abroad; In Short, They Are Company To Us At Night, Our Fellow Travelers On A Journey, And Attendants In Our Rural Recesses.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Other Relaxations Are Peculiar

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Other Relaxations Are Peculiar To Certain Times, Places And Stages Of Life, But The Study Of Letters Is The Nourishment Of Our Youth, And The Joy Of Our Old Age. They Throw An Additional Splendor On Prosperity, And Are The Resource And Consolation Of Adversity; They Delight At Home, And Are No Embarrassment Abroad; In Short, They Are Company To Us At Night, Our Fellow Travelers On A Journey, And Attendants In Our Rural Recesses.

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There Is No More Sure Tie Between Friends Than When They Are United In Their Objects And Wishes.

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.

In This Statement, My Scipio, I Build On Your Own Admirable Definition, That There Can Be No Community, Properly So Called, Unless It Be Regulated By A Combination Of Rights. And By This Definition It Appears That A Multitude Of Men May Be Just As Tyrannical As A Single Despot And Indeed This Is The Most Odious Of All Tyrannies, Since No Monster Can Be More Barbarous Than The Mob, Which Assumes The Name And Mask Of The People.

Thrift Is Of Great Revenue.

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

Summer Lasts Not For Ever; Seasons Succeed Each Other.

What One Has, One Ought To Use: And Whatever He Does He Should Do With All His Might.

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

Frugality Includes All The Other Virtues.

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.

We Must Conceive Of This Whole Universe As One Commonwealth Of Which Both Gods And Men Are Members.

The Human Mind Ever Longs For Occupation.

No One Sees What Is Before His Feet: They Scan The Tracks Of Heaven.

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

Do Nothing Twice Over.

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

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

The Beginnings Of All Things Are Small.

For What People Have Always Sought Is Equality Before The Law. For Rights That Were Not Open To All Alike Would Be No Rights.

In A Disturbed Mind, As In A Body In The Same State, Health Can Not Exist.

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

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!

If Nature Does Not Ratify Law, Then All The Virtues May Lose Their Sway.

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.

It Shows Nobility To Be Willing To Increase Your Debt To A Man To Whom You Already Owe Much.

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

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 A Man Practise The Profession He Best Knows. [lat., Quam Quisque Novit Artem, In Hac Se Exerceat.]

Time Is The Herald Of Truth.

History Illumes Reality, Vitalizes Memory, Provides Guidance In Daily Life

History Of Life

More Law, Less Justice.

Morals Today Are Corrupted By Our Worship Of Riches.

Without Your Knowledge, The Eyes And Ears Of Many Will See And Watch You, As They Have Done Already.

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

Freedom Is Participation In Power.

But As To The Affection Which Anyone May Have For Us, It Is The First Demand Of Duty That We Do Most For Him Who Loves Us Most; But We Should Measure Affection, Not Like Youngsters, By The Ardour Of Its Passion, But Rather By Its Strength And Constancy.

The Mere Act Of Believing That Some Wrongful Course Of Action Constitutes An Advantage Is Pernicious.

The Cultivation Of The Mind Is A Kind Of Food Supplied For The Soul Of Man.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let Us Remember That Justice Must Be Observed Even To The Lowest.

I Know Not Any Season Of Life That Is Past More Agreeably Than Virtuous Old Age.

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

When You Are Aspiring To The Highest Place, It Is Honorable To Reach The Second Or Even The Third Rank.

The Safety Of The People Shall Be The Highest Law.

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

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

Secret Enmities Are More To Be Feared Than Open Ones.

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

Leisure Consists In All Those Virtuous Activities By Which A Man Grows Morally, Intellectually, And Spiritually. It Is That Which Makes A Life Worth Living.

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.

Old Age Is By Nature Rather Talkative.

What The Object Of Senile Avarice May Be I Cannot Conceive. For Can There Be Anything More Absurd Than To Seek More Journey Money, The Less There Remains Of The Journey?

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

The Spirit Is The True Self.

The Greatest Pleasures Are Only Narrowly Separated From Disgust.

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

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

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.

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.

True Glory Strikes Root, And Even Extends Itself; All False Pretensions Fall As Do Flowers, Nor Can Any Feigned Thing Be Lasting.

Wars Are To Be Undertaken In Order That It May Be Possible To Live In Peace Without Molestation.

For A Courageous Man Cannot Die Dishonorably, A Man Who Has Attained The Consulship Cannot Die Before His Time, A Philosopher Cannot Die Wretchedly.

Laws Are Silent In Time Of War.

To Be Ignorant Of What Occurred Before You Were Born Is To Remain Always A Child. For What Is The Worth Of Human Life, Unless It Is Woven Into The Life Of Our Ancestors By The Records Of History?

What Fervent Love Of Herself Would Virtue Excite If She Could Be Seen!

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

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

Calamus Fortior Gladio.

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.

In Anger Nothing Right Nor Judicious Can Be Done.

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

Nothing Is More Noble, Nothing More Venerable Than Fidelity.

Our Generosity Never Should Exceed Our Abilities.

No Sane Man Will Dance.

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.

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.]

Men Of Different Tastes Have Different Pursuits.

Learning Maketh Young Men Temperate, Is The Comfort Of Old Age, Standing For Wealth With Poverty, And Serving As An Ornament To Riches.

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

Everyone Cleaves To The Doctrine He Has Happened Upon, As To A Rock Against Which He Has Been Thrown By Tempest.

Vicious Habits Are So Odious And Degrading That They Transform The Individual Who Practices Them Into An Incarnate Demon.

What Is Dishonorably Got, Is Dishonorably Squandered.

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

Friendship Makes Prosperity Brighter, While It Lightens Adversity By Sharing Its Griefs And Anxieties. [lat., Secundas Res Splendidiores Facit Amicitia, Et Adversas Partiens Communicansque Leviores.]

It Is Difficult To Persuade Mankind That The Love Of Virtue Is The Love Of Themselves.

There Are Some Duties We Owe Even To Those Who Have Wronged Us. There Is, After All, A Limit To Retribution And Punishment.

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.

The Soul In Sleep Gives Proof Of Its Divine Nature.

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

Saving The Virtues Includes All Other Advantages

Politeness And An Affable Address Are Our Best Introduction.

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

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

Taxes Are The Sinews Of The State.

Through Doubt We Arrive At The Truth.

History Is Indeed The Witness Of The Times, The Light Of Truth.

Work Makes A Callus Against Grief.

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

No Man In His Senses Will Dance.

Of All Nature's Gifts To The Human Race, What Is Sweeter To A Man Than His Children?

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.

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

Nihil Est Incertius Vulgo, Nihil Obscurius Voluntate Hominum, Nihil Fallacius Ratione Tota Comitiorum. (nothing Is More Unpredictable Than The Mob, Nothing More Obscure Than Public Opinion, Nothing More Deceptive Than The Whole Political System.)

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

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

Frivolity Is Inborn, Conceit Acquired By Education.

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

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

There Is No Duty More Indispensible Than That Of Returning A Kindness.

A S Laws Multiply, Injustice Increases.

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

History Of Life

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

Divine Inspiration

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

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.

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.

Let The Welfare Of The People Be The Ultimate Law.

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

Before Beginning, Plan Carefully.

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

Nature Has Granted The Use Of Life Like A Loan, Without Fixing Any Day For Repayment.

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?

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

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

After Victory, You Have More Enemies.

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

The Most Desirable Thing In Life After Health And Modest Means Is Leisure With Dignity.

Those Who Do Not Know History Will Forever Remain Children

No One Has The Right To Be Sorry For Himself For A Misfortune That Strikes Everyone.

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.

The Aim Of Justice Is To Give Everyone His Due.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

Of Evils One Should Choose The Least. [lat., Ex Malis Eligere Minima Oportere.]

The Roots Of Knowledge Are Bitter, But Its Fruit Are Sweet.

Patria Est Communis Omnium Parens. Our Country Is The Common Parent Of All.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personal Growth

Friends, Though Absent, Are Still Present.

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.

Extreme Justice Is Extreme Injustice.

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.

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

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

No Man Can Be Brave Who Thinks Pain The Greatest Evil; Nor Temperate, Who Considers Pleasure The Highest God. [lat., Fortis Vero, Dolorem Summum Malum Judicans; Aut Temperans, Voluptatem Summum Bonum Statuens, Esse Certe Nullo Modo Potest.]

Sweet Is The Recollection Of Difficulties Overcome.

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

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

Nature Abhors Annihilation.

Life Without Learning Is Death.

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

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?

All Places Are Filled With Fools. [lat., Stultorum Plenea Sunt Omnia.]

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

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

The Higher Our Position The More Modestly We Should Behave.

What Greater Or Better Gift Can We Offer The Republic Than To Teach And Instruct Our Youth? [lat., Quod Enim Munus Reiplicae Afferre Majus, Meliusve Possumus, Quam Si Docemus Atque Erudimus Juventutem?]

Nothing Troubles You For Which You Do Not Yearn.

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

I Prefer Silent Prudence To Loquacious Folly.

Like Readily Consorts With Like.

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

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

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

Physicians, When The Cause Of Disease Is Discovered, Consider That The Cure Is Discovered.

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

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.

More Is Lost By Indecision Than Wrong Decision. Indecision Is The Thief Of Opportunity. It Will Steal You Blind.

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

He Only Employs His Passion Who Can Make No Use Of His Reason.

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

Every Evil In The Bud Is Easily Crushed: As It Grows Older, It Becomes Stronger.

. . . For Until That God Who Rules All The Region Of The Sky . . . Has Freed You From The Fetters Of Your Body, You Cannot Gain Admission Here. Men Were Created With The Understanding That They Were To Look After That Sphere Called Earth, Which You See In The Middle Of The Temple. Minds Have Been Given To Them Out Of The Eternal Fires You Call Fixed Stars And Planets, Those Spherical Solids Which, Quickened With Divine Minds, Journey Through Their Circuits And Orbits With Amazing Speed.

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

Sound Conviction Should Influence Us Rather Than Public Opinion.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Sinews Of War Are Infinite Money.

Let A Man Practice The Profession Which He Best Knows.

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.

Fire And Water Are Not Of More Universal Use Than Friendship.

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.

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