Continued Insights from Cicero

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

"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"

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

"Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator"

"Brevity is a great charm of eloquence"

"Before beginning, plan carefully"

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

"An unjust peace is better than a just war"

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

"According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another"

"As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved"

"Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error"

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

"The good of the people is the greatest law"

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

"The false is nothing but an imitation of the true"

"Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom"

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

"Rashness belongs to youth; prudence to old age"

"People do not understand what a great revenue economy is"

"Peace is liberty in tranquillity"

"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"

"What gift has providence bestowed on man that is so dear to him as his children?"

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

"What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk"

"What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might"

"What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?"

"What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine"

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child"

"Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature"

"Thrift is of great revenue"

"Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either"

"Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat"

"Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just"

"This is the truth: as from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again"