Marcus Tullius Cicero War Quotations

After victory, you have more enemies.

When war is raging the laws are dumb.

There is sufficient reward in the mere consciousness of a good action.

Virtue is its own reward.

I cease not to advocate peace; even though unjust it is better than the most just war.

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.

Laws are inoperative in war

The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.

Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans.

Honor is the reward of virtue.

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

The sinews of war are infinite money.

Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.

In times of war, the law falls silent.

Let arms yield to the toga, let the [victor's] laurel yield to the [orator's] tongue.

A war is never undertaken by the ideal State, except in defense of its honor or its safety.

Endless money forms the sinews of war. [Lat., Nervi belli pecunia infinita.]

The law is silent during war. [Lat., Silent leges inter arma.]

Let war be so carried on that no other object may seem to be sought but the acquisition of peace. [Lat., Bellum autem ita suscipiatur, ut nihil aliud, nisi pax, quaesita videatur.]

An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home. [Lat., Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi.]

Wars, therefore, are to be undertaken for this end, that we may live in peace, without being injured; but when we obtain the victory, we must preserve those enemies who behaved without cruelty or inhumanity during the war.

That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue. [Lat., Nam quae voluptate, quasi mercede aliqua, ad officium impellitur, ea non est virtus sed fallax imitatio simulatioque virtutis.]

War leads to peace. [Lat., Cedant arma togae.]

Of all the rewards of virtue, . . . the most splendid is fame, for it is fame alone that can offer us the memory of posterity.

Silent enim leges inter arma (Laws are silent in times of war).

For what is there more hideous than avarice, more brutal than lust, more contemptible than cowardice, more base than stupidity and folly?

Justice extorts no reward, no kind of price; she is sought, therefore, for her own sake.

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.

For to me every sort of peace with the citizens seemed to be of more service than civil war.

War should be undertaken in such a way as to show that its only object is peace.

Wars are to be undertaken in order that it may be possible to live in peace without molestation.

The name of peace is sweet, and the thing itself is beneficial, but there is a great difference between peace and servitude. Peace is freedom in tranquillity, servitude is the worst of all evils, to be resisted not only by war, but even by death.

In time of war the laws are silent.

An unjust peace is better than a just war.

The more laws, the less justice.

Laws are silent in time of war.

Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.