Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Let flattery, the handmaid of the vices, be far removed (from friendship). [Lat., Assentatio, vitiorum adjutrix, procul amoveatur.]
There is no grief which time does not lessen and soften. [Lat., Nullus dolor est quem non longinquitas temporis minuat ac molliat.]
How do our philosophers act? Do they not inscribe their signatures to the very essays they write on the propriety of despising glory.
History is truely the witness of times past, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned - yet whose enormous fortune...has already brought him acquittal!
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.
There is no one who can give you wiser advice than you can give yourself: you will never make a slip, if you listen to your own heart.
They who dare to ask anything of a friend, by their very request seem to imply that they would do anything for the sake of that friend.
That, Senators, is what a favour from gangs amounts to. They refrain from murdering someone; then they boast that they have spared him!
But the Night Mother is mother to all! It is her voice we follow! Her will! Would you dare risk disobedience? And surely... punishment?
An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home. [Lat., Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi.]
This excessive licence, which the anarchists think is the only true freedom, provides the stock, as it were, from which a tyrant grows.
We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union and fellowship that exist among all members of the human race.
I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
Learning maketh young men temperate, is the comfort of old age, standing for wealth with poverty, and serving as an ornament to riches.
The diseases of the mind are more and more destructive than those of the body. [Lat., Morbi perniciores pluresque animi quam corporis.]
Nature loves nothing solitary, and always reaches out to something, as a support, which ever in the sincerest friend is most delightful.
In our amusements a certain limit is to be placed that we may not devote ourselves to a life of pleasure and thence fall into immorality.
Nulla (enim) res tantum ad dicendum proficit, quantum scriptio Nothing so much assists learning as writing down what we wish to remember.
For what is there more hideous than avarice, more brutal than lust, more contemptible than cowardice, more base than stupidity and folly?
It is not a virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue, when we are led to the performance of duty by pleasure as its recompense.
The precept, "Know yourself," was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.
If you wish to remove avarice you must remove its mother, luxuries. [Lat., Avaritiam si tollere vultis, mater ejus est tollenda, luxuries.]
If our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.
Exile is terrible to those who have, as it were, a circumscribed habitation; but not to those who look upon the whole globe but as one city.
To stumble twice against the same stone, is a proverbial disgrace. [Lat., Culpa enim illa, bis ad eundem, vulgari reprehensa proverbio est.]
An acute first-class brain is the finest asset anyone can have- and, if we want to be happy, it is an asset we must exploit to the uttermost.
To be endowed with strength by nature, to be actuated by the powers of the mind, and to have a certain spirit almost divine infused into you.
The man who commands efficiently must have obeyed others in the past, and the man who obeys dutifully is worthy of someday being a commander.
You might as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life: for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.
The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.
Every stage of human life, except the last, is marked out by certain and defined limits; old age alone has no precise and determinate boundary.
Nor do I regret that I have lived, since I have so lived that I think I was not born in vain, and I quit life as if it were an inn, not a home.
The magistrates are the ministers for the laws, the judges their interpreters, the rest of us are servants of the law, that we all may be free.
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.
There are two ways to resolve conflicts, through violence or through negotiation. Violence is for wild beasts, negotiation is for human beings.
Who doesn't know that the first law of history is not to dare to say anything false, and the second is not to refrain from saying anything true?
Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.
I am pleased to be praised by a man so praised as you, father. [Words used by Hector.] [Lat., Laetus sum Laudari me abs te, pater, laudato viro.]
The nearer I approach death the more I feel like one who is in sight of land at last and is about to anchor in one's home port after a long voyage.
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.
Not to be avaricious is money; not to be fond of buying is a revenue; but to be content with our own is the greatest and most certain wealth of all.
The last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place. [Lat., Supremus ille dies non nostri extinctionem sed commutationem affert loci.]
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.
He takes the greatest ornament from friendship, who takes modesty from it. [Lat., Maximum ornamentum amicitiae tollit, qui ex ea tollit verecudiam.]
For a courageous man cannot die dishonorably, a man who has attained the consulship cannot die before his time, a philosopher cannot die wretchedly.
Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.
Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill. - Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit
Opinionum enim commenta delet dies; naturæ judicia confirmat. Time destroys the groundless conceits of men; it confirms decisions founded on reality.