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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.

-Marcus Tullius Cicero

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While All Other Things

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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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.

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History Is Truely The Witness Of Times Past, The Light Of Truth, The Life Of Memory, The Teacher Of Life, The Messenger Of Antiquity.

The Shifts Of Fortune Test The Reliability Of Friends.

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

Laws Should Be Interpreted In A Liberal Sense So That Their Intention May Be Preserved.

Nothing Is Too Absurd To Be Said By Some Of The Philosophers.

The Strictest Law Often Causes The Most Serious Wrong

Time Destroys The Speculation Of Men, But It Confirms Nature.

Virtue Is Increased By The Smile Of Approval; And The Love Of Renown Is The Greatest Incentive To Honourable Acts.

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.

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

There Is, I Know Not How, A Certain Presage, As It Were, Of A Future Existence; And This Takes The Deepest Root, And Is Most Discoverable, In The Greatest Geniuses And Most Exalted Souls.

Even The Ablest Pilots Are Willing To Receive Advice From Passengers In Tempestuous Weather.

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?

Probabilities Direct The Conduct Of The Wise Man.

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

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

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

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

Friends, Though Absent, Are Still Present.

Dogs Wait For Us Faithfully.

These Studies Are A Spur To The Young, A Delight To The Old: An Ornament In Prosperity, A Consoling Refuge In Adversity; They Are Pleasure For Us At Home, And No Burden Abroad; They Stay Up With Us At Night, They Accompany Us When We Travel, They Are With Us In Our Country Visits.

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

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

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

No Obligation To Do The Impossible Is Binding.

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.

Let A Man Practice The Profession Which He Best Knows.

No Man Was Ever Great Without Divine Inspiration. [lat., Nemo Vir Magnus Aliquo Afflatu Divino Unquam Fuit.]

Quacks Pretend To Cure Other Men's Disorders, But Fail To Find A Remedy For Their Own.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Prosperity Demands Of Us More Prudence And Moderation Than Adversity.

Silence Is One Of The Great Arts Of Conversation.

Freedom Is Participation In Power.

More Laws, Less Justice.

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

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

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

In Extraordinary Events Ignorance Of Their Causes Produces Astonishment.

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

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

Let Us Assume That Entertainment Is The Sole End Of Reading; Even So I Think You Would Hold That No Mental Employment Is So Broadening To The Sympathies Or So Enlightening To The Understanding. Other Pursuits Belong Not To All Times, All Ages, All Conditions; But This Gives Stimulus To Our Youth And Diversion To Our Old Age; This Adds A Charm To Success, And Offers A Haven Of Consolation To Failure. Through The Night-watches, On All Our Journeyings, And In Our Hours Of Ease, It Is Our Unfailing Companion.

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

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

A Man Does Not Wonder At What He Sees Frequently, Even Though He Be Ignorant Of The Reason. If Anything Happens Which He Has Not Seen Before, He Calls It A Prodigy.

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.

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

Politicians Are Not Born; They Are Excreted.

There Were Poets Before Homer.

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.

Honor Is The Reward Of Virtue.

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

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.

When Confronted By A Hungry Wolf, It Is Unwise To Goad The Beast, As Cato Would Have Us Do. But It Is Equally Unwise To Imagine The Snarling Animal A Friend And Offer Your Hand, As Pompey Does." "perhaps You Would Have Us Climb A Tree!

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

To Remain Ignorant Of History Is To Remain Forever A Child

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.

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.

For To Me Every Sort Of Peace With The Citizens Seemed To Be Of More Service Than Civil War.

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

The Higher We Are Placed, The More Humbly We Should Walk.

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.

It Is Not The Place That Maketh The Person, But The Person That Maketh The Place Honorable.

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.

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.

I Am Of Opinion That There Is Nothing So Beautiful But That There Is Something Still More Beautiful, Of Which This Is The Mere Image And Expression,--a Something Which Can Neither Be Perceived By The Eyes, The Ears, Nor Any Of The Senses; We Comprehend It Merely In The Imagination.

Nothing Dries Sooner Than A Tear.

Too Much Liberty Leads Both Men And Nations To Slavery.

The World Has Not Yet Learned The Riches Of Frugality.

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.

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

Borrowing From Peter To Pay Paul.

The Administration Of Government, Like A Guardianship Ought To Be Directed To The Good Of Those Who Confer, Not Of Those Who Receive The Trust.

Nature Has Inclined Us To Love Men.

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.

Great Is Our Admiration Of The Orator Who Speaks With Fluency And Discretion.

To Some Extent I Liken Slavery To Death.

Quo Usque Tandem Abutere, Catilina, Patientia Nostra? In Heaven's Name,catiline, How Long Will You Abuse Ourpatience?

Fewer Possess Virtue, Than Those Who Wish Us To Believe That They Possess It.

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

Procrastination

The Happiest End Of Life Is This: When The Mind And The Other Senses Being Unimpaired, The Same Nature Which Put It Together Takes Asunder Her Own Work.

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

Those Who Do Not Know History Will Forever Remain Children

To Freemen, Threats Are Impotent.

Through Doubt We Arrive At The Truth.

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

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.

For My Own Part, I Had Rather Be Old Only A Short Time Than Be Old Before I Really Am So.

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

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

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

There Is In Superstition A Senseless Fear Of God.

What Times! What Manners!

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

My Precept To All Who Build, Is, That The Owner Should Be An Ornament To The House, And Not The House To The Owner.

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 Nobler Employment, Or More Valuable To The State, Than That Of The Man Who Instructs The Rising Generation?

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.

The Memory Of Past Troubles Is Pleasant. [lat., Jucunda Memoria Est Praeteritorum Malorum.]

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

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

Not To Know What Has Been Transacted In Former Times Is To Continue Always A Child.

Religion Is Not Removed By Removing Superstition.

Never Injure A Friend, Even In Jest.

War Leads To Peace. [lat., Cedant Arma Togae.]

He He He... Crazy? Cicero? He He He He! That's... Madness.

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

The Spirit Is The True Self. The Spirit, The Will To Win, And The Will To Excel Are The Things That Endure.

Inspirational Sports

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

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?

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

There Is Nothing God Cannot Do.

It Is Pleasant To Recall Past Troubles.

Nothing Is So Difficult To Believe That Oratory Cannot Make It Acceptable, Nothing So Rough And Uncultured As Not To Gain Brilliance And Refinement From Eloquence.

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

The Avarice Of The Old: It's Absurd To Increase One's Luggage As One Nears The Journey's End.

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

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

Saving The Virtues Includes All Other Advantages

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

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.

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

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

The Spirit Is The True Self.

The Human Mind Ever Longs For Occupation.

There Is No Being Of Any Race Who, If He Finds The Proper Guide, Cannot Attain To Virtue.

O Tempora! O Mores! O What Times (are These)! What Morals!

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.

Who Can Love The Man He Fears. Or By Who He Thinks He Is Himself Feared?

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

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

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

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

People Do Not Understand What A Great Revenue Economy Is.

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

A Bachelor's Bed Is The Most Pleasant.

No Sober Person Dances.

A Nation Can Survive Its Fools, And Even The Ambitious. But It Cannot Survive Treason From Within. An Enemy At The Gates Is Less Formidable, For He Is Known And Carries His Banner Openly. But The Traitor Moves Amongst Those Within The Gate Freely, His Sly Whispers Rustling Through All The Alleys, Heard In The Very Halls Of Government Itself.

World Government

The Pursuit, Even Of The Best Things, Ought To Be Calm And Tranquil.

O Philosophy, You Leader Of Life.

In Doubtful Cases The More Liberal Interpretation Must Always Be Preferred.

What Is Dishonorably Got, Is Dishonorably Squandered.

In Ancient Times Music Was The Foundation Of All The Sciences. Education Was Begun With Music With The Persuasion That Nothing Could Be Expected Of A Man Who Was Ignorant Of Music.

A Perverse Temper And Fretful Disposition Will Make Any State Of Life Whatsoever Unhappy.

Slowly And Imperceptibly Old Age Comes Creeping On.

We Are Born Poets. We Become Orators.

Let Reason Govern Desire.

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.

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 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.

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

The Celestial Order And The Beauty Of The Universe Compel Me To Admit That There Is Some Excellent And Eternal Being, Who Deserves The Respect And Homage Of Men

He Who Acknowledges A Kindness Has It Still, And He Who Has A Grateful Sense Of It Has Requited It.

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.

Let The Punishment Be Equal With The Offence. [lat., Noxiae Poena Par Esto.]

What Is Dignity Without Honesty?

Life Is Short, But Art Lives Forever.

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?

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

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

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.

Let The Punishment Be Proportionate To The Offense.

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

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

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

I Prefer The Most Unfair Peace To The Most Righteous War.

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

The Hope Of Impunity Is The Greatest Inducement To Do Wrong.

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.

Wisdom Is The Only Thing Which Can Relieve Us From The Sway Of The Passions And The Fear Of Danger, And Which Can Teach Us To Bear The Injuries Of Fortune Itself With Moderation, And Which Shows Us All The Ways Which Lead To Tranquility And Peace.

I Look Upon The Pleasure We Take In A Garden As One Of The Most Innocent Delights In Human Life.

All Things Are Full Of God.

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

Rashness Attends Youth, As Prudence Does Old Age.

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.

Reason Should Direct, And Appetite Obey.

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

I Am A Roman Citizen.

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

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.]

In A Promise, What You Thought, And Not What You Said, Is Always To Be Considered.

Man Must Suffer To Be Wise.

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

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

Justice Is The Crowning Glory Of The Virtues.

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

We Must Not Say That Every Mistake Is A Foolish One.

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

Most Happy Is He Who Is Entirely Self-reliant, And Who Centers All His Requirements In Himself Alone.

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

Nothing Is Difficult In The Eyes Of A Lover.

When They Remain Silent, They Cry Out.

Everything Is Alive... Everything Is Interconnected.

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

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