“I grieve because the state rests on the breath of one person”
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December 7, 43 B.C. e. members of the second triumvirate killed the ancient Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. Coming from an humble family, he became an outstanding politician thanks to his oratory: at the age of 32 he entered the Senate, and at 42 he was elected to the post of consul. His life principles and views are in the Kommersant selection.
On the qualities of a politician
“Nature told me to be compassionate, my fatherland – harsh; neither the fatherland nor nature ordered me to be cruel”
(From a speech in defense of Publius Cornelius Sulla)
About the consequences
“The only evil in our life is guilt, and there is no guilt where what happened does not depend on the person.
(From the philosophical work “Tusculan Conversations”)
About totalitarianism
“Where there is a tyrant, there is not just a bad state, <...> a there is no state at all.”
(From the treatise “On the State”)
On the role of law
“We should be slaves of the laws to be free”
(From a speech in defense of Aulus Cluentius Gabit)
About the opinion of the masses
“Only that orator is great who seems great to the people. <...> What the crowd approves, the connoisseurs also have to approve.
(From the treatise “Brutus, or About famous speakers”)
About justice
“The business of the judge is to always follow the truth in the analysis of cases; the job of a defender is sometimes to defend the plausible, even if it’s not the whole truth”
(From the treatise “On Duties”)
About the power of age
“Even now I no more envy the strength of the young than I used to envy the strength of a bull or an elephant. What you have is what you should use and whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability.”
(From the dialogue “About old age”)
About public administration
“I mourn that while the state should be immortal, it sustained by one person’s breath (Julius Caesar.— “b”)”
(From a speech on the return of Marcus Marcellus)
About the stubbornness of fools
“Every person tend to be delusional to persist in delusions only fool»
(From the Philippic against Mark Antony)
About war and peace
“I even preferred the most unfair world justified war”
(From a letter to Aulus Tsetsina)
About ways to fight
“If it is possible to apply the laws, then the criminal citizen, or rather the internal enemy, must be broken by the court, but if violence impedes justice or destroys it, then impudence must be overcome with valor, rage with courage, insolence with prudence, gangs with troops, strength with strength.
(From a speech in the Senate on his return from exile)
About anger and courage
“Courage does not need the help of anger: it is itself accustomed, ready, armed to any rebuff. Otherwise, it can be said that drunkenness, and even madness, is also useful for courage, since drunk and the insane also differ in strength “
(From the philosophical work “Tusculan Conversations”)
On the nature of happiness
“And happiness is nothing but prosperity in honest deeds, or—to put it another way— happiness is luck, an assistant to honest intentions, deprived of which one cannot be happy in any way”
(From a letter to Cornelius Nepos)
About the limits of decency
“He who has once crossed the boundaries of modesty must to be quite shameless to the end”
(From a letter to Lucius Lucceus)
About justice
“We must try to give to each according to his merits; this is the foundation of justice.”
(From the treatise “On Duties”)
About ignorance
“Often even not useful to know what will happen in the future: after all, it is a misfortune to lament over what cannot be helped, and not to have the last and, however, universal consolation – hope ”
(From the treatise “On the nature of the gods”)
About the vicissitudes of love
“You must judge a person before you love him, for, having fallen in love, they no longer judge “
(From the treatise “Lelius, or On Friendship”)
About the burden
“You can give to everyone only to the best of your ability. — both your own and the one you want to help. <...> If you are able to render any service to another, consider first whether it is up to him.
(From the treatise “Lelius, or On Friendship”)
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