Cicero Quotes on Time
Cicero's reflections on time, gathered here, are closely tied to memory and to history. He gave classical expression to the idea that history is the witness of times past, the light of truth, the life of memory, and the teacher of life, and he insisted on the value of historical knowledge for maturity itself: not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child. Cicero also saw time as a kind of test that separates illusion from reality, since time destroys the figments of the imagination while confirming the judgments of nature. And he located a form of immortality in remembrance, holding that the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. Drawn from his philosophical dialogues and rhetorical works, these passages show time bound up with memory, judgement, and continuity.
Quotes
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“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
Reddite igitur, patres conscripti, ei vitam, cui ademistis. Vita enim mortuorum in memoria est posita vivorum. -
“De Natura Deorum–On the Nature of the Gods(45 BC) | Book II, section 2; translation by Francis Brooks”
Variant: For time destroys the fictions of error and opinion, while it confirms the determinations of nature and of truth. -
“History is truly the witness of times past, the light of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity; whose voice, but the orator's, can entrust her to immortality?”
De Oratore–On the Orator(55 BC) | Book II, Chapter 9, section 36 -
“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 -
“The greatest states have been overthrown by the young and sustained and restored by the old. ... Rashness is the product of the budding-time of youth, prudence of the harvest-time of age.”
Cato Maior de Senectute – On Old Age(44 BC) | section 20 -
“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 -
“Time destroys the figments of the imagination, while confirming the judgments of nature.”
De Natura Deorum–On the Nature of the Gods(45 BC) -
“And what can be more divine than the exhalations of the earth, which affect the human soul so as to enable her to predict the future ? And could the hand of time evaporate such a virtue? Do you suppose you are talking of some kind of wine or salted meat ?”
De Divinatione–On Divination(44 BC) | Book I, Chapter III