Quotes from The Works of Cicero
22 notable lines from Marcus Tullius Cicero · c. 50 BCE
How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?
Quotations follow the Michael Grant translation (Penguin Classics, 1971) — our recommended edition.
O tempora, o mores!
First Oration Against Catiline (In Catilinam I); idiomatically "Shame on the age and on its principles!" A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero (commonly attributed) How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours?
Opening of the First Oration Against Catiline (In Catilinam I) · trans. Yonge The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
De Legibus Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.
De Legibus, Book III — Salus populi suprema lex esto. True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.
De Re Publica III.22 · trans. Keyes (Loeb 1928) To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.
Orator §120 While there's life, there's hope.
Letters to Atticus IX.10 — Dum anima est, spes esse dicitur. We are not born for ourselves alone; a part of us is claimed by our nation, another part by our friends.
De Officiis I.22 — Non nobis solum nati sumus. Let arms yield to the toga, the laurel of the warrior to the praises of the orator.
De Officiis I.77 — Cedant arma togae. The sinews of war are infinite money.
Philippics V.5 — Nervi belli, pecunia infinita. There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by some philosopher.
De Divinatione II.119 Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual goodwill and affection.
Laelius de Amicitia §20 · trans. Falconer (Loeb) The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
Philippics IX.10 — Vita mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita · trans. Duncan A life of peace, purity, and refinement is the best armor against the storms of fate.
Cicero (paraphrased) No one is so old as to think he cannot live one more year.
De Senectute §24 (On Old Age) · trans. Falconer Any man can make mistakes, but only a fool persists in his error.
Philippics XII.5 O philosophy, thou guide of life! O thou explorer of virtue and expeller of vice!
Tusculan Disputations V.2 — O vitae philosophia dux · trans. J. E. King (Loeb) Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
Pro Plancio We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.
De Natura Deorum II.148 · trans. Brooks A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.
De Natura Deorum I.20