Marcus Tullius Cicero ( 106 BC - 43 BC )
Let your desires be ruled by reason.
Nature herself makes the wise man rich.
Our thoughts are free.
To be content with what one has is the greatest and truest of riches.
Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.
Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
Freedom is a possession of inestimable value.
The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
A life of peace, purity, and refinement leads to a calm and untroubled old age.
Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.
We think a happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.
The absolute good is not a matter of opinion but of nature.
He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.
It is a true saying that "One falsehood leads easily to another".
Victory is by nature insolent and haughty.
Let the punishment match the offense.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
A happy life consists in tranquillity of mind.
Strain every nerve to gain your point.
If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.
The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.
All action is of the mind and the mirror of the mind is the face, its index the eyes.
Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.
The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.
Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion, or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.
Force overcome by force.
In men of the highest character and noblest genius there is to be found an insatiable desire for honour, command, power, and glory.
Advice is judged by results, not by intentions.
Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.
Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.
Cicero
The wise are instructed by reason; ordinary minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes by instinct.
He removes the greatest ornament of friendship, who takes away from it respect.
It is a great thing to know our vices.
A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation.
No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.
There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness.
In so far as the mind is stronger than the body, so are the ills contracted by the mind more severe than those contracted by the body.
Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which and be pointed out by your finger.