Cicéron citations

Page 4

“Quelle époque (vivons-nous)! Quels mœurs!?”
O tempora, o mores

“Que les armes s'effacent devant la toge.”
Cedant arma togae

“Jusques à quand donc, Catilina, abuseras-tu de notre patience?”
Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

“Dans tout corps de doctrine présenté avec méthode, c'est par la définition qu'il faut commencer, afin que l'on saisisse bien l'objet de la discussion.”

“Comme nous avons à vivre non avec des êtres parfaits et souverainement sages, mais avec des hommes qui sont encore estimables s'ils ont quelque vertu, je pense que ceux en qui on en voit quelque trace ne doivent pas être entièrement négligés.”

“En un mot, nos mains tâchent de faire dans la nature, pour ainsi dire, une autre nature.”

“Ce qu'il n'est pas honteux de faire, pourvu que ce soit en secret, il est obscène de le dire. Il y a donc autant d'impudence de faire ces choses publiquement, que d'obscénité à en parler.”

“Ces magistrats, qui ne veillent que pour une partie des citoyens, introduisent dans l'État un dangereux fléau, la sédition et la discorde; les uns passent alors pour amis du peuple, les autres pour défenseurs de l'aristocratie; la patrie n'a presque plus de citoyens.”

“Tout ce qui tient à la bonne foi doit se régler par l'intention et non par les paroles.”

“Je n'aurai rien à désirer, si votre bibliothèque est accompagnée d'un jardin.”

“C'est une démence d'appeler la tempête quand on est dans le calme, comme il est de la sagesse de faire tête à l'orage quand il arrive.”

“La volupté, qui est honteuse à tous les âges, est une turpitude pour la vieillesse.”

“Dans nos mœurs, un beau-père ne se baigne point avec son gendre, ni un père avec son fils, dès qu'il est sorti de l'enfance. On ne saurait assez se conformer à ces règles de pudeur, surtout lorsque c'est la nature qui les a faites.”

“Il est permis d'avoir recours à quelque douce réprimande, en y joignant toutefois l'air grave qui doit accompagner la sévérité, et qui éloigne l'outrage du mépris. Il faut même faire voir que tout ce qu'il y a d'amer dans le reproche, n'y a été mis que pour l'avantage de celui qui le reçoit.”

“Il y a quatre sources de l'honnêteté : toute honnêteté dérive de l'une d'elles. L'honnêteté consiste ou à discerner la vérité par la sagacité de l'esprit, ou à maintenir la société humaine en rendant à chacun ce qui lui est dû, et en tenant fidèlement les conventions; ou dans la force et l'élévation d'une âme fière et inébranlable; ou dans cette régularité et cette convenance parfaite des paroles et des actions, qui constitue la modération et la tempérance.”

“Les hommes (…) ont été créés pour leurs semblables, afin qu'ils pu[i]ssent s'aider les uns les autres.”

“On ne doit jamais ajouter l'injure au châtiment. (…) La colère surtout ne doit jamais accompagner le châtiment”

“There is said to be hope for a sick man, as long as there is life.”
Aegroto dum anima est, spes esse dicitur.

“No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.”
Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere.

“Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill.”
Adsiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit.

“As for me, I cease not to advocate peace. It may be on unjust terms, but even so it is more expedient than the justest of civil wars.”
Equidem ad pacem hortari non desino; quae vel iniusta utilior est quam iustissimum bellum cum civibus.

“I should prefer uneloquent good sense to loquacious folly”
Malim equidem indisertam prudentiam quam stultitiam loquacem

“Time heals all wounds.”
Diem adimere aegritudinem hominibus.

“A: I will now follow Reason whithersoever she shall lead me.”
A: Nunc rationem, quo ea me cumque ducet, sequar.

“If, then, the things achieved by nature are more excellent than those achieved by art, and if art produces nothing without making use of intelligence, nature also ought not to be considered destitute of intelligence. If at the sight of a statue or painted picture you know that art has been employed, and from the distant view of the course of a ship feel sure that it is made to move by art and intelligence, and if you understand on looking at a horologe, whether one marked out with lines, or working by means of water, that the hours are indicated by art and not by chance, with what possible consistency can you suppose that the universe which contains these same products of art, and their constructors, and all things, is destitute of forethought and intelligence? Why, if any one were to carry into Scythia or Britain the globe which our friend Posidonius has lately constructed, each one of the revolutions of which brings about the same movement in the sun and moon and five wandering stars as is brought about each day and night in the heavens, no one in those barbarous countries would doubt that that globe was the work of intelligence.”
Si igitur meliora sunt ea quae natura quam illa quae arte perfecta sunt, nec ars efficit quicquam sine ratione, ne natura quidem rationis expers est habenda. Qui igitur convenit, signum aut tabulam pictam cum aspexeris, scire adhibitam esse artem, cumque procul cursum navigii videris, non dubitare, quin id ratione atque arte moveatur, aut cum solarium vel descriptum vel ex aqua contemplere, intellegere declarari horas arte, non casu, mundum autem, qui et has ipsas artes et earum artifices et cuncta conplectatur consilii et rationis esse expertem putare. [88] Quod si in Scythiam aut in Brittanniam sphaeram aliquis tulerit hanc, quam nuper familiaris noster effecit Posidonius, cuius singulae conversiones idem efficiunt in sole et in luna et in quinque stellis errantibus, quod efficitur in caelo singulis diebus et noctibus, quis in illa barbaria dubitet, quin ea sphaera sit perfecta ratione.

“According to Cato the Elder, Scipio Africanus was wont to say that he was never less at leisure than when at leisure, nor less alone than when alone.”
P. Scipionem [...] dicere solitum scripsit Cato [...] numquam se minus otiosum esse, quam cum otiosus; nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset.

“Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.”
Salus populi suprema lex esto.

“Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.”

“True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can anything feigned be lasting.”
Vera gloria radices agit atque etiam propagatur, ficta omnia celeriter tamquam flosculi decidunt nec simulatum potest quicquam esse diuturnum.

“No one can be happy without virtue.”
Beatus autem esse sine virtute nemo potest

“We may, indeed, indulge in sport and jest, but in the same way as we enjoy sleep or other relaxations, and only when we have satisfied the claims of our earnest, serious task.”
Ludo autem et ioco uti illo quidem licet, sed sicut somno et quietibus ceteris tum, cum gravibus seriisque rebus satis fecerimus.

“In short, enjoy the blessing of strength while you have it and do not bewail it when it is gone, unless, forsooth, you believe that youth must lament the loss of infancy, or early manhood the passing of youth. Life's race-course is fixed; Nature has only a single path and that path is run but once, and to each stage of existence has been allotted its own appropriate quality; so that the weakness of childhood, the impetuosity of youth, the seriousness of middle life, the maturity of old age—each bears some of Nature's fruit, which must be garnered in its own season.”
Denique isto bono utare, dum adsit, cum absit, ne requiras: nisi forte adulescentes pueritiam, paulum aetate progressi adulescentiam debent requirere. cursus est certus aetatis et una via naturae eaque simplex, suaque cuique parti aetatis tempestivitas est data, ut et infirmitas puerorum et ferocitas iuvenum et gravitas iam constantis aetatis et senectutis maturitas naturale quiddam habet, quod suo tempore percipi debeat.

“For the habit of arguing in support of atheism, whether it be done from conviction or in pretence, is a wicked and impious practice.”
Mala enim et impia consuetudo est contra deos disputandi, sive ex animo id fit sive simulate.

“That which is most excellent, and is most to be desired by all happy, honest and healthy-minded men, is dignified leisure.”
Id quod est praestantissimum, maximeque optabile omnibus sanis et bonis et beatis, cum dignitate otium.

“We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.”
Nec vero superstitione tollenda religio tollitur.

“Before entering any occupation, diligent preparation is to be undertaken.”
In omnibus autem negotiis priusquam adgrediare, adhibenda est praeparatio diligens.

“In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.”
Etenim, iudices, cum omnibus virtutibus me adfectum esse cupio, tum nihil est quod malim quam me et esse gratum et videri. Haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum.

“Who does not see this is senseless; who sees and still approves is ungodly.”
Hoc qui non videt, excors; qui, cum videt, decernit, impius est.

“Whatever befalls in accordance with Nature should be accounted good.”
Omnia autem quae secundum naturam fiunt sunt habenda in bonis.

“Should they answer that, if impunity were assured, they would do what was most to their selfish interest, that would be a confession that they were criminally minded; should they say that they would not do so, they would be granting that all things in and of themselves immoral should be avoided.”
Si responderint se impunitate proposita facturos, quod expediat, facinorosos se esse fateantur, si negent, omnia turpia per se ipsa fugienda esse concedant.

“For friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.”
Nam et secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia et adversas partiens communicansque leviores.

“The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.”

“For with what eyes of the mind was your Plato able to see that workhouse of such stupendous toil, in which he makes the world to be modelled and built by God? What materials, what bars, what machines, what servants, were employed in so vast a work? How could the air, fire, water, and earth, pay obedience and submit to the will of the architect? From whence arose those five forms, of which the rest were composed, so aptly contributing to frame the mind and produce the senses? It is tedious to go through all, as they are of such a sort that they look more like things to be desired than to be discovered.”
Quibus enim oculis animi intueri potuit vester Plato fabricam illam tanti operis, qua construi a deo atque aedificari mundum facit; quae molitio, quae ferramenta, qui vectes, quae machinae, qui ministri tanti muneris fuerunt; quem ad modum autem oboedire et parere voluntati architecti aer, ignis, aqua, terra potuerunt; unde vero ortae illae quinque formae, ex quibus reliqua formantur, apte cadentes ad animum afficiendum pariendosque sensus? Longum est ad omnia, quae talia sunt, ut optata magis quam inventa videantur.

“The freedom of poetic license.”

“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?”
Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis, qua voce alia nisi oratoris immortalitati commendatur?

“I have always been of the opinion that infamy earned by doing what is right is not infamy at all, but glory.”
Quodsi ea mihi maxime inpenderet tamen hoc animo fui semper, ut invidiam virtute partam gloriam, non invidiam putarem.