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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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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True Law Is Right

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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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.

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More From Marcus Tullius Cicero

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.

Socrates Was The First To Call Philosophy Down From The Heavens And To Place It In Cities, And Even To Introduce It Into Homes And Compel It To Inquire About Life And Standards And Goods And Evils.

The Popular Breeze - Aura Popularis

The Real Friend Is Another Self.

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

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.  

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

Strain Every Nerve To Gain Your Point.

History Is The Teacher Of Life

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

For Just As Some Women Are Said To Be Handsome Though Without Adornment, So This Subtle Manner Of Speech, Though Lacking In Artificial Graces, Delights Us.

Kindness Is Produced By Kindness.

Let Each Man Have According To His Deserts.

Through Doubt We Arrive At The Truth.

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.

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.

No Man Should So Act As To Make A Gain Out Of The Ignorance Of Another.

Everyone Has The Obligation To Ponder Well His Own Specific Traits Of Character. He Must Also Regulate Them Adequately And Not Wonder Whether Someone Else's Traits Might Suit Him Better. The More Definitely His Own A Man's Character Is, The Better It Fits Him.

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

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.

Reason Is The Mistress And Queen Of All Things. [lat., Domina Omnium Et Regina Ratio.]

There Is Not A Moment Without Some Duty.

When I Consider The Wonderful Activity Of The Mind, So Great A Memory Of What Is Past, And Such A Capacity Of Penetrating Into The Future: When I Behold Such A Number Of Arts And Sciences, And Such A Multitude Of Discoveries Hence Arising,--i Believe And Am Firmly Persuaded That A Nature Which Contains So Many Things Within Itself Cannot Be Mortal.

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

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.

The Nobler A Man, The Harder It Is For Him To Suspect Inferiority In Others.

No Grief Is So Acute But Time Ameliorates It.

Now In Regard To Trades And Other Means Of Livelihood, Which Ones Are To Be Considered Becoming To A Gentleman And Which Ones Are Vulgar, We Have Been Taught, In General, As Follows. First, Those Means Of Livelihood Are Rejected As Undesirable Which Incur People's Ill-will, As Those Of Tax-gatherers And Usurers. Unbecoming To A Gentleman, Too, And Vulgar Are The Means Of Livelihood Of All Hired Workmen Whom We Pay For Mere Manual Labour, Not For Artistic Skill; For In Their Case The Very Wage They Receive Is A Pledge Of Their Slavery.

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.

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.'

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

No Sober Person Dances.

There Is Nothing Which Wings Its Flight So Swiftly As Calumny, Nothing Is Uttered With More Ease; Nothing Is Listened To With More Readiness, Nothing Disbursed More Widely.

While There's Life, There's Hope.

There Exists A Law, Not Written Down Anywhere But Inborn In Our Hearts; A Law Which Comes To Us Not By Training Or Custom Or Reading But By Derivation And Absorption And Adoption From Nature Itself; A Law Which Has Come To Us Not From Theory But From Practice, Not By Instruction But By Natural Intuition. I Refer To The Law Which Lays It Down That, If Our Lives Are Endangered By Plots Or Violence Or Armed Robbers Or Enemies, Any And Every Method Of Protecting Ourselves Is Morally Right.

The Swan Is Not Without Cause Dedicated To Apollo, Because Foreseeing His Happiness In Death, He Dies With Singing And Pleasure.

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

Let Arms Yield To The Toga, Let The [victor's] Laurel Yield To The [orator's] Tongue.

The Foundation Of Justice Is Good Faith.

Let Reason Govern Desire.

If You Possess A Library And A Garden, You Have Everything You Need. (translation From The French) Si Vous Possedez Une Bibliotheque Et Un Jardin, Vous Avez Tout Ce Qu'il Vous Faut.

No Obligation To Do The Impossible Is Binding.

Let The Punishment Match The Offense.

Advice In Old Age Is Foolish; For What Can Be More Absurd Than To Increase Our Provisions For The Road The Nearer We Approach To Our Journey's End.

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

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

Men Of Different Tastes Have Different Pursuits.

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

I Am Of The Opinion Which You Have Always Held, That "viva Voce" Voting At Elections Is The Best Method. [lat., Nam Ego In Ista Sum Sententia, Qua Te Fuisse Semper Scio, Nihil Ut Feurit In Suffragiis Voce Melius.]

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

History Of Life

This Is The Truth: As From A Fire Aflame Thousands Of Sparks Come Forth, Even So From The Creator An Infinity Of Beings Have Life And To Him Return Again.

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

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

We Should Not Be So Taken Up In The Search For Truth, As To Neglect The Needful Duties Of Active Life; For It Is Only Action That Gives A True Value And Commendation To Virtue.

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

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

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

Thrift Is Of Great Revenue.

All Things Tend To Corrupt Perverted Minds.

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

God's Law Is 'right Reason.' When Perfectly Understood It Is Called 'wisdom.' When Applied By Government In Regulating Human Relations It Is Called 'justice.

I Shall Always Consider The Best Guesser The Best Prophet.

This, Therefore, Is A Law Not Found In Books, But Written On The Fleshly Tablets Of The Heart, Which We Have Not Learned From Man, Received Or Read, But Which We Have Caught Up From Nature Herself, Sucked In And Imbibed; The Knowledge Of Which We Were Not Taught, But For Which We Were Made; We Received It Not By Education, But By Intuition.

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.

In A Disordered Mind, As In A Disordered Body, Soundness Of Health Is Impossible.

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

Everything That Thou Reprovest In Another, Thou Must Most Carefully Avoid In Thyself. [lat., Omnia Quae Vindicaris In Altero, Tibi Ipsi Vehementer Fugienda Sunt.]

Superstition Is An Unreasoning Fear Of God.

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.

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.

I Cannot Find A Faithful Message-bearer," He Wrote To His Friend, The Scholar Atticus. "how Few Are They Who Are Able To Carry A Rather Weighty Letter Without Lightening It By Reading.

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

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

We Are All Excited By The Love Of Praise, And The Noblest Are Most Influenced By Glory.

Where Is There Dignity Unless There Is Honesty?

No Wise Man Has Called A Change Of Opinion In Constancy.

I Am Never Less Alone Than When Alone.

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

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

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

Great Inspirational

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

In Everything, Without Doubt, Truth Has The Advantage Over Imitation.

No One Has Lived A Short Life Who Has Performed Its Duties With Unblemished Character.

Friendship Is The Only Thing In The World Concerning The Usefulness Of Which All Mankind Are Agreed.

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

Natural Environment

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.

Life Is Short, But Art Lives Forever.

Let Flattery, The Handmaid Of The Vices, Be Far Removed .

The Devil Finds Work For Idle Hands To Do. Better To Reign In The Hell Than Serve In Heaven. We Are In Bondage To The Law In Order That We May Be Free.

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

Pardon Is Granted To Necessity.

There Is No Duty More Obligatory Than The Repayment Of Kindness.

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

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.

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

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

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

Old Age, Especially An Honored Old Age, Has So Great Authority, That This Is Of More Value Than All The Pleasures Of Youth.

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

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

The Man Who Is Always Fortunate Cannot Easily Have A Great Reverence For Virtue.

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

Before Beginning, Prepare Carefully.

Man's Life Is Ruled By Fortune, Not By Wisdom.

The Name Of Peace Is Sweet And The Thing Itself Good, But Between Peace And Slavery There Is The Greatest Difference.

For What Is There More Hideous Than Avarice, More Brutal Than Lust, More Contemptible Than Cowardice, More Base Than Stupidity And Folly?

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

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

It Is The Soul Itself Which Sees And Hears, And Not Those Parts Which Are, As It Were, But Windows To The Soul.

Window To The Soul

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

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

Longing Not So Much To Change Things As To Overturn Them.

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

The Good Of The People Is The Greatest Law.

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

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

Divine Inspiration

Hunger Is The Best Sauce.

Unraveling The Web Of Penelope.

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

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?]

To Live Long, Live Slowly.

Ability Without Honor Is Useless.

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

Dissimulation Creeps Gradually Into The Minds Of Men.

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

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

The Countenance Is The Portrait Of The Soul, And The Eyes Mark Its Intentions.

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

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

Let Every Man Practise The Trade Which He Best Understands.

The Best Interpreter Of The Law Is Custom.

The Works Of Nature Must All Be Accounted Good.

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

Virtue Is Its Own Reward.

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.

In Times Of War, The Law Falls Silent.

If Only Every Man Would Make Proper Use Of His Strength And Do His Utmost, He Need Never Regret His Limited Ability.

The Beginnings Of All Things Are Small.

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

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

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

Constant Practice Devoted To One Subject Often Outdoes Both Intelligence And Skill. - Assiduus Usus Uni Rei Deditus Et Ingenium Et Artem Saepe Vincit

Honor Is The Reward Of Virtue.

A Wise Man Does Nothing By Constraint.

Justice Consists In Doing No Injury To Men; Decency In Giving Them No Offense.

Offense And Defense

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

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

Morals Today Are Corrupted By Our Worship Of Riches.

Let Arms Give Place To The Robe, And The Laurel Of The Warriors Yield To The Tongue Of The Orator.

It Is Pleasant To Recall Past Troubles.

The Mansion Should Not Be Graced By Its Master, The Master Should Grace The Mansion.

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

Rashness Attends Youth, As Prudence Does Old Age.

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

There Are No True Friends In Politics.

No True Friends

Never Go To Excess, But Let Moderation Be Your Guide.

In The Conduct Of Almost Every Affair Slowness And Procrastination Are Hateful

Procrastination

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.

I Prefer Silent Prudence To Loquacious Folly.

The Beauty Of The World And The Orderly Arrangement Of Everything Celestial Makes Us Confess That There Is An Excellent And Eternal Nature, Which Ought To Be Worshiped And Admired By All Mankind.

To Study Philosophy Is Nothing But To Prepare One’s Self To Die.

There Is No Quality I Would Rather Have, And Be Thought To Have, Than Gratitude. For It Is Not Only The Greatest Virtue, But Is The Mother Of All The Rest.

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

I Follow Nature As The Surest Guide, And Resign Myself With Implicit Obedience To Her Sacred Ordinances.

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

The Science Of Love Is The Philosophy Of The Heart

An Ancient Custom Obtains Force Of Nature.

Forces Of Nature

A Thankful Heart Is The Greatest Virtue.

Nature Has Circumscribed The Field Of Life Within Small Dimensions, But Has Left The Field Of Glory Unmeasured.

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

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.

A Letter Does Not Blush.

For There Is But One Essential Justice Which Cements Society, And One Law Which Establishes This Justice. This Law Is Right Reason, Which Is The True Rule Of All Commandments And Prohibitions. Whoever Neglects This Law, Whether Written Or Unwritten, Is Necessarily Unjust And Wicked.

All The Arts Of Refinement Have Mutual Kinship.

A Happy Life Consists In Tranquility Of Mind.

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

In All Great Arts, As In Trees, It Is The Height That Charms Us; We Care Nothing For The Roots Or Trunks, Yet It Could Not Be Without The Aid Of These.

Man's Best Support Is A Very Dear Friend.

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

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

The First Law For The Historian Is That He Shall Never Dare Utter An Untruth. The Second Is That He Shall Suppress Nothing That Is True. Moreover, There Shall Be No Suspicion Of Partiality In His Writing, Or Of Malice.

Friends Are Proved By Adversity.

Fortune Is Not Only Blind Herself, But Blinds The People She Has Embraced.

If Wisdom Be Attainable, Let Us Not Only Win But Enjoy It.

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.

There Is No Moment Without Some Duty.

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

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

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

It Is The Nature Of Every Person To Error, But Only The Fool Perseveres In Error.

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

It Is As Hard For The Good To Suspect Evil, As It Is For The Bad To Suspect Good.

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.

Loyalty Is What We Seek In Friendship.

The Wise Man Knows Nothing If He Cannot Benefit From His Wisdom. Wisdom Is Not Only To Be Acquired, But Also To Be Utilized.

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

Let Every Man Practice The Art That He Knows Best.

A True Friend Is A Sort Of Second Self.

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.

Silence Is One Of The Great Arts Of Conversation.

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