Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

— Marcus Tullius 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?

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

To live is to think.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

To some extent I liken slavery to death.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

True nobility is exempt from fear.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Two distinctive traits especially identify beyond a doubt a strong and dominant character. One trait is contempt for external circumstances, when one is convinced that men ought to respect, to desire, and to pursue only what is moral and right, that men should be subject to nothing, not to another man, not to some disturbing passion, not to Fortune. The second trait, when your character has the disposition I outlined just now, is to perform the kind of services that are significant and most beneficial; but they should also be services that are a severe challenge, that are filled with ordeals, and that endanger not only your life but also the many comforts that make life attractive. Of these two traits, all the glory, magnificence, and the advantage, too, let us not forget, are in the second, while the drive and the discipline that make men great are in the former.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

We are bound by the law, so that we may be free.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero