Quotes by Roman authors

"No man was ever wise by chance"

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts; therefore guard accordingly"

"They can because they think they can"

"We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired to glory"

"I am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me"

"As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind"

"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"

"Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system"

"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one"

"Even though work stops, expenses run on"

"We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue"

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

"To live is to think"

"Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered"

"No sane man will dance"

"Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty"

"The study and knowledge of the universe would somehow be lame and defective were no practical results to follow"

"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"

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

"While there's life, there's hope"

"The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed"

"Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind"

"In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred"

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started"

"The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others"

"Take from a man his reputation for probity, and the more shrewd and clever he is, the more hated and mistrusted he becomes"

"Hatred is settled anger"

"When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff"

"The more laws, the less justice"

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