"Before beginning, plan carefully"
About this Quote
Spare and imperative, the counsel distills the Roman virtue of prudentia: think before you move. Cicero, who navigated the lethal politics of the late Republic, knew that public life punishes impulse. To plan carefully is not timid delay but the disciplined work of consilium: clarifying ends, weighing means, estimating risks, and anticipating opponents. Without that forethought, action becomes a gamble with the commonwealth as the stake.
Ciceros career makes the advice concrete. As consul in 63 BCE, he faced the Catiline conspiracy and did not lunge blindly. He gathered intelligence, built alliances in the Senate, mapped the legal ground, and crafted a sequence of speeches that moved opinion step by step. The decisive arrests and executions were dramatic, but they were the tip of a structure erected by planning. In his philosophical writings, especially On Duties, he links prudence to moral purpose: before one chooses how to act, one must determine what the right end is, since efficient means in service of a bad end magnify harm. In rhetoric, too, he insists that invention and arrangement are a kind of strategic planning; the orator who wins cases rehearses objections in advance, orders arguments to guide emotion and judgment, and measures style to circumstance.
There is also a cadence embedded in Roman practical wisdom: deliberate thoroughly, then act promptly. Careful planning serves speed by removing confusion at the moment of execution. The warning cuts both ways: overplanning can become paralysis, yet haste without blueprint invites chaos. The balance Cicero urges is a civic ethic as much as a personal habit. It honors responsibility to others, because careful plans consider consequences for allies, rivals, and the res publica.
Applied beyond Rome, the maxim is a check on performative busyness. Planning clarifies aims, aligns means with values, and conserves courage for the moment when action finally matters.
Ciceros career makes the advice concrete. As consul in 63 BCE, he faced the Catiline conspiracy and did not lunge blindly. He gathered intelligence, built alliances in the Senate, mapped the legal ground, and crafted a sequence of speeches that moved opinion step by step. The decisive arrests and executions were dramatic, but they were the tip of a structure erected by planning. In his philosophical writings, especially On Duties, he links prudence to moral purpose: before one chooses how to act, one must determine what the right end is, since efficient means in service of a bad end magnify harm. In rhetoric, too, he insists that invention and arrangement are a kind of strategic planning; the orator who wins cases rehearses objections in advance, orders arguments to guide emotion and judgment, and measures style to circumstance.
There is also a cadence embedded in Roman practical wisdom: deliberate thoroughly, then act promptly. Careful planning serves speed by removing confusion at the moment of execution. The warning cuts both ways: overplanning can become paralysis, yet haste without blueprint invites chaos. The balance Cicero urges is a civic ethic as much as a personal habit. It honors responsibility to others, because careful plans consider consequences for allies, rivals, and the res publica.
Applied beyond Rome, the maxim is a check on performative busyness. Planning clarifies aims, aligns means with values, and conserves courage for the moment when action finally matters.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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