Week 2022-26: Marcus Tullius Cicero - Collected Quotes

"Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Pro Balbo" cca. 56 BC)

"Probability is the very guide of life." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Natura Deorum" ["On the Nature of the Gods"], 45 BC)

"Is it possible, then, for any man to apprehend in advance occurrences for which no cause or reason can be assigned? What do we mean when we employ such terms as luck, fortune, accident, turn of the die, except that we are seeking to describe events which happened and came to pass in such a way that they either might not have happened and come to pass at all or might have happened and come to pass under quite different circumstances? How then can an event be anticipated and predicted which occurs fortuitously and as a result of blind chance and of the spinning of Fortune's wheel?" (Marcus Tulius Cicero, "De Divinatione", 44 BC)

"The first duty of man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Officiis", ["On Duties"], cca. 44 BC)

"The exact kind of language we employ in philosophical analyses of abstract truth is one thing, and the language used in attempts to popularize the subject is another." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De officiis" ["On Duties"], cca.44 BC)

"The Causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Epistolae ad atticum" ["Letters to Atticus"], cca. 46-44 BC)

"The most important events are often determined by very trivial causes." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Orationes Philippicae", 44-43 BC)

"A happy life consists in tranquility of mind." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"Courage is the virtue which champions the cause of right." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"For it is not having insufficient knowledge, but persisting a long time in insufficient knowledge that is shameful; since the one is assumed to be a disease common to all, but the other is assumed to be a flaw to an individual." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Inventione")

"In everything, without doubt, truth has the advantage over imitation." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"No power is strong enough to be lasting if it labors under the weight of fear." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob […]." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"That is probable which for the most part usually comes to pass, or which is a part of the ordinary beliefs of mankind, or which contains in itself some resemblance to these qualities, whether such resemblance be true or false." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Inventione")

"The precept, 'Know yourself', was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"To stumble twice against the same stone is a proverbial disgrace." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

"What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does, he should do with all his might." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)