Cicero Quotes on Truth
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 truth, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Indeed rhetoricians are permitted to lie about historical matters so they can speak more subtly. Brutus , 42”
Quidem concessum est rhetoribus ementiri in historiis ut aliquid dicere possint argutius. -
“Variant: For time destroys the fictions of error and opinion, while it confirms the determinations of nature and of truth.”
De Natura Deorum–On the Nature of the Gods(45 BC) | Book II, section 2; translation by Francis Brooks -
“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 -
“That which is most excellent, and is most to be desired by all happy, honest and healthy-minded men, is dignified leisure.”
Pro Publio Sestio ; Chapter XLV -
“True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can anything feigned be lasting.”
De Officiis–On Duties(44 BC) | Book II, section 43 -
“Does not, as fire dropped upon water is immediately extinguished and cooled, so, does not, I say, a false accusation, when brought in contact with a most pure and holy life, instantly fall and become extinguished?”
Cicero , Pro Roscio Comodeo Oratio , 17; C.D. Yonge translation