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Quotations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Tullius CiceroFriendship improves happiness - Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

Read at every wait; read at all hours - Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

Ignorance of what occurred before you were born - To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?

If we are not ashamed to think it - If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

The authority of those who teach - The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

Books are the heart and core of ages past - 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.

A nation can survive its fools - 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. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

What is morally wrong can never. . . - What is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

Six mistakes mankind keeps making - Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Advice in old age - 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.

Natural ability without education - I add this also, that natural ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

The magistrate is a speaking law - You understand, then, that the function of a magistrate is to govern, and to give commands which are just and beneficial and in conformity with the law. For as the laws govern the magistrate, so the magistrate governs the people, and it can truly be said that the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law a silent magistrate.

Causes of events are more interesting - The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

Four causes of misery in old age - As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.