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Quotes by Roman Authors
"The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn."
"Religion is not removed by removing superstition."
"I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own."
"Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nature forms our habits, by which we are nurtured and live."
"Friendship was given by nature to be an assistant to virtue not a companion in vice."
"O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life."
"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."
"No one could ever meet death for his country without the hope of immortality."
"Nothing common can seem worthy of you."
"A happy life consists in tranquility of mind."
"We must stand up against old age and make up for its drawbacks by taking pains. We must fight it as we should an illness. We must look after our health, use moderate exercise, take just enough food and drink to recruit, but not to overload, our strength. Nor is it the body alone that must be supported, but the intellect and soul much more."
"The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity."
"According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another."
"For it is commonly said: accomplished labours are pleasant."
"If only every man would make proper use of his strength and do his utmost he need never regret his limited ability."
"Just as apples when unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This ripeness is so delightful to me that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem, as it were, to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last after a long voyage."
"No man was ever great without a touch of divine afflatus."
"A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth."
"Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so."
"There is something pleasurable in calm remembrance of a past sorrow."
"No power is strong enough to be lasting if it labors under the weight of fear."
"What need of prompt or hint when it is open to yourself to discern what needs to be done - and, if you can see your way, to follow it with kind but undeviating intent. If you cannot see the way, hold back and consult your best advisors. if some other factors obstruct this advice, proceed on your present resources, but with cautious deliberations, keeping always to what seems just. Justice is the best aim, as any failure is in fact a failure of justice.A man following reason in all things combines relaxation with initiative, spark with composure."
"The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends."
"Thou shouldst eat to live not live to eat."
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