Marcus Tullius Cicero Wise Quotations

Nature herself makes the wise man rich.

We study history not to be clever in another time, but to be wise always.

For surely to be wise is the most desirable thing in all the world.

Lucius Cassius ille quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum iudicem putabat identidem in causis quaerere solebat 'cui bono' fuisset. The famous Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to regard as a very honest and wise judge, was in the habit of asking, time and again, 'To whose benefit?

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

The wise man never loses his temper.

Man must suffer to be wise.

A wise man does nothing by constraint.

Probabilities direct the conduct of the wise man.

We rejoice in the joys of our friends as much as we do our own, and we are equally grieved at their sorrows. Wherefore the wise people will feel toward their friends as they do toward themselves, and whatever labor they would encounter with a view to their own pleasure, they will encounter also for the sake of their friends.

The wise man knows nothing if he cannot benefit from his wisdom. Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but also to be utilized.

A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.

The multitude of fools is a protection to the wise.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

No wise man has called a change of opinion in constancy.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

No wise man ever thought that a traitor should be trusted.

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; the beasts, by nature.