Ancient Roman Philosophers

When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men’s minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.

—Cicero

No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.

—Julius Caesar

The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.

—Cicero

While there’s life, there’s hope.

—Cicero

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

—Cicero

The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.

—Cicero

Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

—Cicero

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.

—Cicero

I am not ashamed to confess I am ignorant of what I do not know.

—Cicero

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

—Cicero

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

—Cicero

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

—Cicero

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?

—Cicero

Not for ourselves alone are we born.

—Cicero

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.

—Cicero

In times of war, the law falls silent.

—Cicero

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.

—Marcus Aurelius

The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.

—Cicero

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

—Marcus Aurelius

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.

—Marcus Aurelius

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

—Marcus Aurelius

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

—Marcus Aurelius

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

—Marcus Aurelius

Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?

—Cicero

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

—Cicero

It is a great thing to know your vices.

—Cicero

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

—Marcus Aurelius

Life is nothing without friendship.

—Cicero

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

—Cicero

Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge.

—Cicero