Quotes by Roman authors

"No man was ever wise by chance"

"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"

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

"They can because they think they can"

"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"

"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"

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

"Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses"

"An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes"

"Wisdom is not attained by years, but by ability"

"If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice"

"Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend"

"No blessing lasts forever"

"There's no such thing, you know, as picking out the best woman: it's only a question of comparative badness, brother"

"A contented mind is the best source for trouble"

"No sane man will dance"

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

"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"

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

"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"

"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"