70 Cicero Quotes: Daily Inspiration and Life Wisdom

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Ancient Rome gave the world more than grand buildings. Structures like the Colosseum and the Pantheon still stand today, showing the power of Roman engineering. But Rome also left behind something less visible: the words and ideas of great thinkers. Among the most enduring are the Cicero quotes that people still read and share thousands of years later.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, and philosopher who lived from 106 BC to 43 BC. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers and speakers in the history of the Latin language. His works shaped Roman law and Latin literature, and his ideas later influenced Western philosophy and political thought for many centuries.

In this article, we have gathered some of the best Cicero quotes that are still relevant today. Check out these words and use it as daily inspiration.

1. “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?”

2. "“The life of the dead is placed on the memories of the living. The love you gave in life keeps people alive beyond their time. Anyone who was given love will always live on in another's heart.”"

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

4. "We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history."

5. "A home without books is a body without soul."

6. "People don't know the value of what they have until it is gone: Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.... Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude. Don't wait till freedom is gone before you enjoy, value, support, protect and make the most of it!"

7. "It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own."

8. "Silence is one of the great arts of conversation."

9. "The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct."

10. "The first duty of man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth."

11. "Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief."

12. "Morals today are corrupted by our worship of riches."

13. "It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment."

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

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

16. “Life is nothing without friendship.”

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

18. "Just as the soul fills the body, so God fills the world. Just as the soul bears the body, so God endures the world. Just as the soul sees but is not seen, so God sees but is not seen. Just as the soul feeds the body, so God gives food to the world."

19. "The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words."

20. "It shows nobility to be willing to increase your debt to a man to whom you already owe much."

21. "Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money."

22. "Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable."

23. "We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names."

24. "Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent."

25. "Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends."

26. "Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due."

27. "Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law."

28. “A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”

29. “Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.”

30. “The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.”

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

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

33. “Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?”

34. "No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year."

35. “Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.”

1. "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."

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

3. "Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow."

4. "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."

5. "It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it."

6. "The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory."

7. "The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk."

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

9. "To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches."

10. “The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.”

11. “While there's life, there's hope.”

12. “The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.”

13. “We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.”

14. "Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body."

15. "No one can give you better advice than yourself."

16. "You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself."

17. "Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide."

18. "Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself."

19. "Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain."

20. "All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief."

21. "True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long."

22. "Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live."

23. "More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Indecision is the thief of opportunity. It will steal you blind."

24. "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."

25. "There are two ways to resolve conflicts, through violence or through negotiation. Violence is for wild beasts, negotiation is for human beings."

26. "I have always been of the opinion that unpopularity earned by doing what is right is not unpopularity at all, but glory."

27. “I criticize by creation, not by finding fault.”

28. “It is a great thing to know your vices.”

29. "The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure."

30. "I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own."

31. "No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone."

33. "A man's own manner and character is what most becomes him."

34. “Never injure a friend, even in jest.”

35. “It is our own evil thoughts which madden us.”