Roman Philosophers Quotes

• A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Moving, Tyrants, World Government

  Speaking to the Roman Senate, as recorded by Sallust in The Catiline War (c. 40 b.c.). This quotation is a favorite of CIA counterintelligence officers.

  740 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

  Socrates

  Wise, Wisdom, Philosophy

  512 Copy quote

• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Motivational, Leadership

  Attributed to Aristotle in "Religion and the Pursuit of Truth" by Lowell Lindsay Bennion, p. 52, 1959.

  240 Copy quote

  Show source

• A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Tyrants, Ambitious, Fool

  Speaking to the Roman Senate, as recorded by Sallust in The Catiline War (c. 40 b.c.). This quotation is a favorite of CIA counterintelligence officers.

  113 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Children, Life And Love, Philosophical

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1962). “Brutus”, Loeb Classical Library

  180 Copy quote

  Show source

• Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Crush, Mistake, Believe

  600 Copy quote

• Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.

  Seneca the Younger

  Wise, Religious, Atheist

  135 Copy quote

• The gift of truth excels all other gifts.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Truth, Philosophy

  22 Copy quote

• When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you from taking action to initiate change. The Roman philosopher Tacitus rightly observed that 'the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.' If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into aliveness, alertness and creativity.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Creativity, Mean, Safety

  16 Copy quote

• Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live and what will amaze you even more, throughout life you must learn to die. Seneca (Roman philosopher)

  Seneca the Younger

  Death, Philosopher, Whole

  9 Copy quote

• "When we do not know what harbor we are making for," the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, "no wind is the right wind." Persons have vision only when they have a dream that drives them on.

  Joan D. Chittister

  Dream, Wind, Goal

  4 Copy quote

• When they asked some old Roman philosopher or other how he wanted to die, he said he would open his veins in a warm bath. I thought it would be easy, lying in the tup and seeing the redness flower from my wrists, flush after flush through the clear water, till I sank into sleep under a surface gaudy as poppies.

  Sylvia Plath

  Lying, Flower, Sleep

  Sylvia Plath (2008). “The Bell Jar”, p.110, Faber & Faber

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger (tutor to Nero) complained that his peers were wasting time and money accumulating too many books, admonishing that "the abundance of books is a distraction." Instead, Seneca recommended focusing on a limited number of good books, to be read thoroughly and repeatedly.

  Daniel Levitin

  Book, Numbers, Peers

  4 Copy quote

• As a Roman philosopher, Cicero, said of him a few hundred years later, Socrates 'called philosophy down from the sky and established her in the towns and introduced her into homes and forced her to investigate life, ethics, good and evil.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Philosophy, Home, Years

  8 Copy quote