Cicero Quotes on Knowledge
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) was the principal Latin transmitter of Greek philosophy and the central source for the Hellenistic epistemological debates between the Academic Skeptics, the Stoics, and the Epicureans. The Academica defends the moderate skepticism of Carneades and Philo of Larissa as Cicero's own position — knowledge in the strict Stoic sense (assent to a kataleptic impression) is not available to human beings, but a graded probabilism (the probabile, the verisimile) supplies the rational guide that practical and theoretical inquiry require. The framework runs through De Natura Deorum, De Finibus, and the Tusculan Disputations as Cicero's distinctive philosophical voice.
Quotes
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“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil. -
Attributed to Cicero:
“I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.”
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Attributed to Cicero:
“The wise are instructed by reason; average minds by experience; the stupid, by necessity; and brutes, by instinct.”
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“On Duties (De Officiis) 1.33 (translated by Walter Miller)”
Wikiquote -
“Equidem ad pacem hortari non desino; quae vel iniusta utilior est quam iustissimum bellum cum civibus.”
As for me, I cease not to advocate peace. It may be on unjust terms, but even so it is more expedient than the justest of civil wars. Epistulae ad Atticum (Letters to Atticus) Book VII, Letter 14, section 3; as translated by E.O. Winstedt in the Loeb Classical Library -
“They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe.”
Letters to Atticus, Book I, 18. -
“Letters to Atticus, Book I, 18.”
They are such fools that they seem to expect that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe. -
“Letters to Atticus, Book II, 1.”
since our leading men think themselves in a seventh heaven, if there are bearded mullets in their fish-ponds that will come to hand for food, and neglect everything else, do not you think that I am doing no mean service if I secure that those who have the power, should not have the will, to do any harm? -
“Quidem concessum est rhetoribus ementiri in historiis ut aliquid dicere possint argutius.”
Indeed rhetoricians are permitted to lie about historical matters so they can speak more subtly. Brutus , 42 -
“For in order to command well, we should know how to submit; and he who submits with a good grace will some time become worthy of commanding.”
De Legibus(On the Laws)(c. 40s BC) | Book III, section 2; translation by Francis Barham -
“Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a previous age?”
Orator Ad M. Brutum(46 BC) -
“Variant translation: To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child.”
Orator Ad M. Brutum(46 BC) | Chapter XXXIV, section 120 -
“Arms are of little value in the field unless there is wise counsel at home.”
De Officiis–On Duties(44 BC) | Book I, section 76 (trans. Walter Miller)