Cicero Quotes on Knowledge
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer, and philosopher of the late Roman Republic, who served as consul in 63 BC and was murdered in 43 BC during the proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate. This page collects quotes attributed to Cicero on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
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