On Duties Quotes

“Law applied to its extreme is the greatest injustice”
― Cicero Marcus Tullius, On Duties

“No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“Freedom will bite back more fiercely when suspended than when she remains undisturbed.”
― Cicero, On Duties

“In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“Il y a encore de certains devoirs à remplir envers même de qui nous avons reçu une injure; car la vengeance et la punition ont aussi leurs bornes. Je ne sais même si repentir de celui qui a fait l'injure ne suffirait pas et pour l'empêcher d'en faire une semblable à l'avenir et pour retenir les autres dans le devoir.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“Of this last kind of comparisons is that quoted from the elder Cato, who, when asked what was the most profitable thing to be done on an estate, replied, “To feed cattle well.” “What second best?” “To feed cattle moderately well.” “What third best?” “To feed cattle, though but poorly.” “What fourth best?” “To plough the land.” And when he who had made these inquiries asked, “What is to be said of making profit by usury?” Cato replied, “What is to be said of making profit by murder?”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“Optime autem societas hominum conjunctioque servabitur, si, ut quisque erit conjunctissimus, ita in eum benignitatis plurimum conferetur. (...)

Homo, qui erranti comiter monstrat viam,
Quasi lumen de suo lumine accendat, facit
Nihilo minus ipsi lucet, cum illi accenderit.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“But of all the bonds of fellowship, there is none more noble, none more powerful than when good men of congenial character are joined in intimate friendship.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis

“a distinction has gradually sprung up between what is expedient and what is right. But the implication that something can be right without being expedient, or expedient without being right, is the most pernicious error that could possibly be introduced into human life.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“sed inter hominem et beluam ho maxime interest, quod haec tantum, quantum sensu movetur, ad id solum, quod adest quodque prasens est, se accommodat paulum admodum sentiens praeteritum aut futurum; homo autem, quod rationis est particeps, per quam consequentia cernit, causas rerum videt earumque praegressus et quasi antecessiones non ignorat, similitudines comparat rebusque praesentibus adjungit atque annectit futuras, facile totius vitae cursum videt ad eamque degendam praeparat res necessarias.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties

“It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one's fellow-men; of considerateness , not to wound their feelings; and in this the essence of propriety is best seen.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties