I felt that a new reading [...] did me good: not only because it served to polish my style [...] but above all because it led me to restrain and conquer my passions.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Cicéron
Marcus Tullius Cicero (3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.
What knowledge of history [...]? But what an elevation of ideas on the true happiness of man! One sees from his way of thinking [...] that his life was in conformity with his doctrine.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Until the time of Socrates, philosophy was confined to physics: and it was he [...] who first, by taking it from the moral side, gave it entry into private homes.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
[He], in my opinion, brought philosophy onto the stage, and taught it to speak so clearly that even the common audience finds itself able to understand and applaud it.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
While we see the [ancients] make such good use of sad leisure [...] putting their consolation in the precepts of philosophy: how are we not ashamed of our vain conversations [...]?
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
I never read Cicero [...] without being struck to the point of believing that there was something divine in the soul from which these works came to us.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
A writer so full of research, so clear, so abundant, and who puts so much soul into everything he says, could he not be truly profound!
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Which of his readers does he not send away with a calmer heart! Can one, overwhelmed with sadness, pick up one of his books and not feel cheerfulness reborn?
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
You do not think that you are reading; you believe that these are things happening before your very eyes.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
What, indeed, is more fortunate than to be able [...] to converse with the most eloquent characters, with the best people who ever lived?
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
To have begun to take great pleasure in Cicero is to have already made great progress.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
The sanctity of this learned man dazzled me as much as the beauty of his divine style. [...] he touched my heart, and I find myself more virtuous for it.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
I exhort the youth to read [the great] works well [...]. This will be time better spent than reading these miserable booklets, where one only persists in foolish disputes.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
As for me, although old age is gaining on me, I will not blush to reconcile myself with my dear Cicero, whom I had abandoned for too long.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
How many are there [...] who respect authority [...] when they see another, easier path to achieve honors and all the objects of their ambition?
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
Let them have power, honors, all the advantages: but may those who have worked to save the State at least be able to save themselves.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
If ardent zeal for the fatherland causes [a man's] ruin, who, thereafter, will be so foolish as not to prefer the [...] dangerous and slippery path, to the firm and steady path of virtue?
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
If you are disgusted with [certain] citizens, make it known: those who [...] still have the freedom of choice, will change their system, will follow another path.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
If you want to see the number of citizens animated by the same feelings as us grow, express your opinion.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
[Your actions] will teach that a wise, regular, irreproachable conduct should expect no reward from you.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
Do not compound the son's grief with the father's tears, nor the father's sadness with the son's tears.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
His tears demand the fulfillment of my promises.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
Preserve for the republic a citizen [...] for what such a man is worth.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
We know that the jackdaw is naturally a thief: to entrust gold to it would be to want to lose it.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
In difficult times, when there is a great need for much money, tributes are demanded everywhere.
59 BC
Source: In Defense of L. Flaccus (trans. Paret)
Thales [...] laid the foundations of philosophy in Greece.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Pythagoras, the first to have taken the name of philosopher...
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
[Heraclitus was the] founder of a sect that did not flourish much.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Anaxagoras [...] is the first to have philosophized in Athens.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Aristotle [...] recognizes [Zeno of Elea] as the inventor of dialectics.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Diagoras the Atheist. [...] the Athenians put a price on his head.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
It is to make the disciple flourish before the master was born.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
[Antisthenes] founded the Cynic sect, which was absorbed into that of the Stoics.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
[Plato] was only able to learn from Socrates for eight years.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
As [Plato] philosophized [...] in a place called the Academy, his followers kept the name Academics.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
...philosophers were forbidden to teach in Athens.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
[Ariston of Chios] founded a sect, but it was short-lived.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Diogenes of Babylon, a Stoic, [was sent as] deputy from the Athenians to Rome.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
Diogenes of Babylon [...] was the master of Antipater, who was that of Panaetius. Panaetius was that of Posidonius, and the latter that of Cicero.
45 BC
Source: On the Nature of the Gods
If you want our city to be immortal [...], we must guard against our own passions, against turbulent men eager for revolution; against internal evils and treacherous plots hatched in our own homes.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
Indeed, [...] if nature has confined our lives within narrow bounds, she has set none to our glory.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
There is not one of us who exposes himself with noble devotion to the dangers of public life without the hope of living gloriously in posterity.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
Of such horrible things, it is not only the effect and the execution, but the possibility, the expectation, the very idea which is unworthy of a citizen [...] and of a free man.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
It is [...] the duty of good and courageous citizens [...] to close every path to sedition, to fortify the ramparts of the republic.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
To hide was to condemn oneself to the most shameful death; to join [the enemy] was crime and madness: courage, virtue, and honor commanded to join the [good citizens].
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
It is a question [...] of nothing less than to annihilate forever [...] all public will, all agreement of good men against the fury and audacity of the wicked.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
One is a bad citizen [...] when, by keeping the portrait of a seditious man [...], one wishes either to honor his memory [...] or to show a desire to imitate his crimes.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
Which of us [...] is the friend of the people? Is it you who want [...] to hand citizens over to the executioner, or I, who forbid the defilement of the public assembly by the fatal presence of an executioner?
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
It is a calamity to be tarnished by a public judgment [...]; it is a calamity to be exiled; but in all these misfortunes, some trace of liberty is always preserved.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
Should he have remained hidden in some dark corner, seeking in the depths of his home and in the shadows a shield for his cowardice?
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
[Certain] words [...] are repugnant to a free and gentle government such as ours; [...] words that must be traced back [...] to the most arrogant and cruel of tyrants.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
And if, in the end, we are condemned to death, let us die as free men. [...] Let such an outrage no longer stain even our thoughts, our ears, our eyes.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
He who, fighting for the republic, has received honorable wounds [...] trembles at the blow aimed at his reputation. He whom the shock of enemies has never made retreat [...] shudders with dread.
63 BC
Source: Speech for C. Rabirius (trans. Paret)
That virtue alone is sufficient for a happy life. [...] Although it seems difficult to be persuaded of this, because of the vicissitudes of fortune, it is a maxim of such importance that every effort must be made to convince minds of it.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Philosophy, you who alone can guide us! O you who teach virtue and tame vice! What would we do, and what would become of humankind without your help?
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
A single day spent following the precepts [of philosophy] is preferable to the immortality of one who strays from them.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
[...] while some seek glory, and others riches, there is a third kind of man, [...] who, regarding all else as nothing, apply themselves principally to contemplation. These are the ones who call themselves philosophers.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Socrates was the first to bring true philosophy down from the heavens [...] to make everyone discourse on what can serve to regulate life, to form morals, and to distinguish what is good from what is evil.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
The sea is judged to be calm when its surface is not stirred by the slightest wind; and likewise the soul is judged to be tranquil when no disturbance agitates it.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Give folly all that it desires, it will believe it still does not have enough: wisdom, on the contrary, always content with what it presently possesses, never murmurs at its lot.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Let us therefore judge philosophers, not by the terms they use, but by the consistency and coherence of their principles.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
A man who thinks thus is moderate; he is courageous; he is wise, and in adversity as in prosperity [...] he obeys the ancient precept, which forbids us ever to give ourselves over too much, either to joy or to sorrow [...].
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Nothing that can escape us should be counted among the things necessary for happiness; for it is not possible to be happy as long as one fears losing what makes one so.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
[...] it is better to suffer an injury than to inflict one.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
One of his flatterers, named Damocles [...] believed himself the most fortunate of men, when all of a sudden he perceived above his head a naked sword [...] attached to the ceiling by a single horsehair.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
A mind that occupies itself night and day with meditations attains that knowledge so recommended by the oracle of Delphi: self-knowledge.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
What kingdoms, what riches can be worth the charms of their studies?
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
Wherever I am well, there I find my homeland.
45 BC
Source: Tusculan Disputations
A great citizen must always be ready to combat anything that could bring turmoil to the State.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
In a civil dissension, [...] votes should be weighed, not counted.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
The passions, those harsh mistresses of the soul, [...] lead to all crimes those whom they have inflamed with their seductions.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
Good men find in the conscience of their beautiful deeds the most perfect reward for their virtue, yet this divine virtue aspires to more lasting honors [...].
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
Know that all those who have saved, helped, and enlarged their homeland have a place prepared for them in heaven, where they will enjoy endless bliss.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
The supreme God who governs the immense universe finds nothing on earth more pleasing to his eyes than these gatherings of men assembled under the guarantee of laws, which are called cities.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
True life [...] begins for those who escape from the bonds of the body where they were captive; but what you call life is really death.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
None of you, without the command of him who gave it [the soul] to you, can leave this mortal life; by fleeing it, you would seem to abandon the post where God has placed you.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
The earth itself seemed so small to me that our empire, which touches but a point of it, made me ashamed.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
If the earth seems small to you, as it is indeed, raise your eyes to these celestial regions; despise all human things.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
Let virtue show you the way to true glory, and draw you to it by its charms.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
The finest renown [...] does not have the gift of immortality, it perishes with men and is extinguished in the oblivion of posterity.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
What makes a man is the soul, not this figure that can be pointed at with a finger.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
The being that moves itself is [...] the only one that never ceases to move, since it never abandons itself.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
Exercise this soul in the most excellent functions. There are none higher than to watch over the salvation of the homeland.
54-51 BC
Source: On the Republic/VI
What is sweeter than one's homeland!
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
You give me back to myself.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I preferred to draw the storms upon myself rather than upon the fatherland.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I abandoned my homeland so that it would not be stained with the blood of citizens.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
The forum was mute; the senate, voiceless; the whole city, in dejection and silence.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
There is nothing to fear, as long as there is a single leader worthy of the name.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
One must, if possible, resort to the law [...], but if violence annihilates the courts, all that remains is to repress audacity with courage [...] and force with force.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
This is not the time to remember insults; and even if I could take revenge, I would still prefer to forget them.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
Another care must fill the course of my life; it is to [...] keep the friends I have tested in adversity.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
If I had vanquished my adversary, I would have had many others to vanquish; if I had succumbed, an infinity of good people would have perished [...].
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I preferred to expose good people to deploring my fate, rather than plunging them into despair.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I did not think I should stay when the republic itself [...] was banished; and it brought me back with it as soon as it saw itself recalled.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
Since I have been restored to the republic with the republic, far from diminishing my former freedom to defend it, I will even redouble my courage.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I was made to suffer this disgrace only because I had defended the State, and I underwent it voluntarily so as not to see the fatherland I had saved perish with me.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
I have found what I had lost, and [...] I have never lost my courage nor my love for my country.
September 57 BC
Source: Cicero's speech to the Senate after his return (Auger trans.)
In these unfortunate times, they dare not raise their own voices to denounce the crime. [...] they remain silent, frightened by the danger.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
We no longer know how to forgive [...], and even the practice of condemning without a hearing has prevailed among us.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
I ask [...] that they be content with our money and our property, without wanting our blood and our lives.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
Consider that if [...] you do not show all the firmness of which you are capable, greed, wickedness, and audacity will be carried to such an excess that murders will be committed, no longer in secret, but in broad daylight.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
Poets have created these fictions only to present to us, in foreign characters, a portrait of our customs and an image of ordinary life.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
It is useful in a State that there be many accusers, so that audacity may be contained by fear; but they must not openly make a mockery of the public.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
The culprit's crime and his own terrors are his cruelest torture. [...] It is the burning remorse and the cries of his conscience that strike terror into his soul.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
The man truly worthy of our homage is [...] he who has risen by his own merit, and who has not founded his greatness on the misfortune and ruin of others.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
No one [...] brings himself to do evil without a motive of interest.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
It is in the city that luxury is born: luxury necessarily produces greed, and greed begets audacity, which is itself the mother of all crimes and all misdeeds.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
To violate this trust is to destroy the common refuge of all men; it is to disturb, as much as one can, the harmony of society.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
The crime that must be punished most severely is the one against which it is most difficult to guard oneself. We can hide from strangers, but there are no secrets from intimacy.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
He believes that he alone has a monopoly on wealth and power.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
If arms were taken up so that the lowest of men could enrich themselves with the property of others [...], then this war, instead of bringing peace and liberty [...], has only made the yoke of oppression heavier.
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
Do they not seem to have separated them from all of nature, by ravishing from them at once the sky, the sun, the water, and the earth, so that the monster [...] should no longer enjoy any of the elements which are regarded as the principle of all that exists?
79 BC
Source: In Defense of Sextus Roscius of Ameria (Guéroult Translation)
Abundance of speech [...] are no small advantages [...] when they are governed by sound judgment, a wise and moderate mind.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Art, without the assiduous practice of speech, is not of great help, from which you must conclude that practice must be joined to precepts.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
If the fact is true, one must nonetheless take all these precautions in recounting it; otherwise, the truth can often seem implausible.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
The shorter the narrative, the clearer and easier it is to grasp.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
It is the characteristic of bad faith to cling to the words and the letter, without considering the intention.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
They are so afraid of letting an ambiguous term slip that they cannot pronounce their own name.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
[Arguments] are more trustworthy than witnesses; for [...] witnesses can be corrupted by money, favors, fear, or hatred.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
One will say that [public rumors] do not arise by chance and without some foundation.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
If one wishes to dismiss [public rumors], one will first establish that many are false, and will cite examples that prove their deceit.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Such excuses, if they were admitted, would leave the greatest crimes unpunished.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Nor should one say something that can be taken in a sense other than the one intended.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Nor is it proper to cite as proof that which is still under discussion.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
We will command attention by promising to speak of important, new, extraordinary things, or of facts that concern the State or the audience itself.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
It is a poor defense, when dealing with an established crime, to fall back on some minor service.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
It is a disgrace to believe oneself sufficiently enlightened by conjecture and suspicion in the absence of witnesses.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Such rare goodness, such extraordinary clemency, this admirable moderation in boundless power [...] do not permit me to stifle the voice of gratitude.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
One feels how much a good deed honors the giver, when there is so much glory in receiving.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Fortune [...] claims the greatest part [of success]; and there is hardly any success that she does not claim as her own work.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Rashness is never allied with wisdom, and chance is not admitted to the counsels of prudence.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
To conquer oneself, to suppress one's anger, to moderate victory [...] is to do more than a hero, it is to equal a divinity.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
What the years take from monuments, they add to glory.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
[The clement one] seems to have conquered victory itself, by restoring to the vanquished the rights it had acquired over them.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
I have always thought that we must concern ourselves with peace, and I have seen with sorrow that it was rejected [...].
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Your [victory] did not extend beyond the combat; Rome did not see a single sword out of its sheath.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Enjoy your happiness, your glory, and above all the goodness of your character: for the wise, there is no sweeter reward [...].
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
The splendor of true glory, the majesty of a great soul [...] appear to be a gift of virtue; the rest is but a loan from fortune.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
[One must] understand that [the salvation of all] is tied to [that of one], and that on the life of one depends the life of all citizens.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Leave, then, to philosophers this stoic contempt for death; do not aspire to a wisdom that would be fatal [to all].
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
Glory is a brilliant fame [...], acquired through great and numerous services rendered to one's own, to one's country, to all of humanity.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
For [a great man], life is not this fleeting moment [...]; life is that existence which will be perpetuated by the memory of all centuries.
46 BC
Source: Defense of Marcellus
The two powers that exercise the most absolute empire in a State, influence and eloquence, seem today to have united against us.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
All those whose lives are in the hands of others think more of what the one on whom their fate depends can do, than what he ought to do.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
There is no duty so sacred and respectable that greed will not outrage and trample it underfoot!
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
Whether fortune has stripped a citizen of his possessions, or injustice has stolen them from him; if his reputation is spotless, honor consoles him for his poverty.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
An honorable death often covers a shameful life with its glory; a shameful life does not even leave the hope of an honorable death.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
The honest man refuses to sacrifice a citizen, even with justice. [...] he prefers to be able to recall that he spared him, when he could have destroyed him.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
An old proverb says that it is easier to make a buffoon rich than to make him a gentleman.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
Besides, if he wanted to live as an honest man, he would have to do two things equally difficult at his age: learn much and forget much.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
There are [...] truths so luminous that nothing can obscure their clarity.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
Violence, crime, robbery, is not everything in it, everything, except justice, integrity, honor?
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
It is, in effect, a matter of deciding whether the severe economy of a simple and rustic life can defend itself against luxury and license.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
It is distressing to be deceived; more distressing to be deceived by one of your own.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
One is indignant to be defeated by an equal, or a superior; one is more indignant to be defeated by an abject and degraded rival.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
He implored him [...] to respect, if not the man, at least humanity.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
May he whose integrity was never in doubt not see, at sixty, his name condemned to dishonor.
81 BC
Source: In Defense of Quintius (Burnouf Translation)
Fortune cannot do much harm to one who has relied more on virtue than on chance.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Broad and beautiful things can please for a long time; those that are merely pretty and cute soon tire the ear, the most disdainful of our senses.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
There is more advantage [...] in raising suspicion with veiled words than in putting forward something that could be contested.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
One must eat to live, and not live to eat.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
It is because you are a fool that you are silent, but you are not a fool for being silent.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
In this case, a tacit suspicion does more harm than a thing explained at length.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
This is not courage, it is recklessness; courage [...] scorns fatigue and danger for a useful motive, [...] recklessness braves fatigue without reason.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
That is not economy, it is greed; for economy consists in carefully preserving what one possesses, but greed leads us to unjustly desire the property of others.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
[This figure] leaves to the listener himself the task of guessing what the orator does not say.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Just as swallows come to us with the good weather and fly away at the touch of cold, so false friends [...] all fly away at the first harsh breath of fortune.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
I drove out kings; you bring in tyrants. I gave you liberty [...]; you, who now possess it, do not want to keep it.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
When the ship perishes, one often still manages to escape the wreck; but when the storm engulfs the republic, no one escapes its fury.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
You dared to speak thus, O you, of all men the most.... For I do not know what name to give you that would be worthy of your character.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
Indeed, it is not necessary for a simile to extend to all parts of an object; it is enough that it is accurate from the chosen point of view.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
We can acquire all these advantages [of Rhetoric] by joining the study of precepts with the diligent practice of exercises.
86-82 BC
Source: Rhetoric to Herennius (Thibaut trans.)
To punish without hatred when the crime exists, to forget all prejudice when it does not.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
Our judgments would lose their authority [...] if, instead of ruling after having heard the case, we came with our minds already made up.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
There is nothing so formidable for a man as prejudice; nothing so desirable for the innocent it pursues as an impartial judgment.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
Debauchery has overcome modesty, audacity has overcome fear, delirium has overcome reason.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
I know that we must suffer [...] the wrongs of our parents. But I also think that one must suffer what can be suffered, and hide what can be hidden.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
It was less the sacred union of two spouses than the monstrous association of two accomplices.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
Every time I give a speech, I feel I am before a tribunal that will judge not only my talent, but also my integrity and character.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
Despite the frankness of his zeal, one might have said sometimes that instead of defending the accused, [the lawyer] was in collusion with the accuser.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
A well-formed opinion on a man's character leads one to judge what his actions might have been.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
It is more natural to look for the corruptor in the one who fears being condemned, than in the one who fears seeing the other acquitted.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
The case [...] remains the same, and nothing can change it; but the storm has passed, the hatred has subsided.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
He, it is said, is the wisest who knows for himself what ought to be done; the next place belongs to him who knows how to follow the wise counsel of another.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
It is [...] for the first time that truth, reassured by the equity of the judges, raises its voice against slander.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
It was not a judgment [...]. It was an abuse of force; [...] a catastrophe, a storm, anything but a judgment, a discussion, a trial.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)
For such men to bend their principles, violent suspicions must undoubtedly have suddenly seized their minds.
66 BC
Source: In Defense of A. Cluentius Avitus (trans. Burnouf)