Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire.
43 Notes
106 BC - 43 BC
Arpinum, Italy, Roman Republic
"For many of my years perhaps twelve had passed away since my nineteenth, when, upon the reading of Cicero’s Hortensius, I was roused to a desire for wisdom."
"You’re asking, ‘What is the point of this introduction? What’s the purpose?’ I won’t hide it from you. I want, if possible, to use the term‘essential’ with your approval; but if that is not possible I will use the term even if it annoys you. I can cite Cicero as an authority for this word, an abundantly influential one in my view."
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.4
#Quotes"You demand from me more frequent letters. Let’s compare accounts:you’ll be in no position to pay your debt. Our agreement was that your contributions would come first, that you would write and I would reply. But I won’t be intransigent; I know you are a good credit risk. So I will give in advance and will not do what Cicero, an extremely eloquent man, asks Atticus to do, that is to ‘jot down whatever came into his head, even if he had nothing to say.’"
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.72
#Quotes"There can never be a lack of things for me to write about, even though I pass over all those things which fill Cicero’s letters: who is having trouble with his election campaign, who is campaigning with someone else’s resources and who with his own, who relies on Caesar in seeking the consulship, who relies on Pompey, and who relies on money, what a heartless loan shark Caecilius is—those near and dear to him cannot get a penny out of him at less than one percent a month! It is better to deal with one’s own faults than those of other people, to examine oneself and to see how many things one is campaigning for, and not to canvass for someone else"
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.72
#Analysis"In the ordinary course of study I came upon a certain book of Cicero’s, whose language almost all admire, though not his heart. This particular book of his contains an exhortation to philosophy and was called Hortensius.61 Now it was this book which quite definitely changed my whole attitude and turned my prayers toward thee, O Lord, and gave me new hope and new desires. Suddenly every vain hope became worthless to me, and with an incredible warmth of heart I yearned for an immortality of wisdom and began now to arise that I might return to thee. It was not to sharpen my tongue further that I made use of that book. I was now nineteen;my father had been dead two years,62 and my mother was providing the money for my study of rhetoric"
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.33
#Praise"Since at that time, as thou knowest, O Light of my heart, the words of the apostle were unknown to me, I was delighted with Cicero’s exhortation, at least enough so that I was stimulated by it, and enkindled and inflamed to love, to seek,to obtain, to hold, and to embrace, not this or that sect, but wisdom itself, wherever it might be"
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.34
#Praise"For many of my years perhaps twelve had passed away since my nineteenth, when, upon the reading of Cicero’s Hortensius, I was roused to a desire for wisdom."
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.103
#Praise"Then said she: 'This debate about providence is an old one, and is vigorously discussed by Cicero in his "Divination"; thou also hast long and earnestly pondered the problem, yet no one has had diligence and perseverance enough to find a solution."
Book & Page: Boethius IV.
#Quotes"Hence it is evident that Cicero was wrong in disapproving (De Tusc. Quaest. iii, 4) of the Peripatetic theory of a mean in the passions, when he says that "every evil, though moderate, should be shunned; for, just as a body, though it is moderately ailing, is not sound; so, this mean in the diseases or passions of the soul, is not sound." For passions are not called"diseases" or "disturbances" of the soul, save when they are not controlled by reason."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2782
#Disagree"For the aspect of honest is derived from the appetite, since the honest is "what is desirable for its own sake" [Cicero, De Invent. Rhet. ii, 53]. But the beautiful regards rather the faculty of vision, to which it is pleasing. Therefore, the beautiful is not the same as the honest."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.5944
#Quotes"Wherefore Cicero, following their opinion (De Tusc. Quaest. iii, 4) calls all passions "diseases of the soul": whence he argues that "those who are diseased are unsound;and those who are unsound are wanting in sense.""
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2781
#Quotes"Further, Cicero says (Quaest. Tusc. iv, 4,6) that "we fear when they are yet to come, those things which give us pain when they are present." But it is possible for one to be pained or sorrowful on account of the evil of sin. Therefore, one can also fear the evil of sin."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3008
#Quotes"Further, counsel is an act of reason, in thinking and deliberating about the future. But a certain fear "drives away all thought, and dislocates the mind," as Cicero observes (De Quaest.Tusc. iv, 8). Therefore, fear does not conduce to counsel, but hinders it."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3025
#Quotes": Further, Isidore (De sum. bono i, 10) says that "demons learn more things by experience." But experimental knowledge is discursive: for, "one experience comes of many remembrances, and one universal from many experiences," as Aristotle observes(Poster. ii; Metaph. vii). Therefore, an angel's knowledge is discursive."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p. 1587
#Quotes"It would seem that anger is in the concupiscence faculty.For Cicero says (De Quaest. Tusc. iv, 9) that anger is a kind of "desire." But desire is in the concupiscence faculty. Therefore, anger is too."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3046
#Quotes"Further, Cicero says (De Invent. Rhet. ii) that "virtue is a habit like a second nature, in accord with reason." But since every human virtue is directed to man's good, it must be in accord with reason: since man's good "consists in that which agrees with his reason," as Dionysius states (Div. Nom. iv). Therefore, every virtue is a moral virtue."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3191
#Quotes"Again, temperance is said to be brave, by reason of fortitude overflowing into temperance: in so far, to wit, as he whose mind is strengthened by fortitude against dangers of death, which is a matter of very great difficulty, is more able to remain firm against the onslaught of pleasures; for as Cicero says (De Offic. i), "it would be inconsistent for a man to be unbroken by fear, and yet vanquished by cupidity; or that he should be conquered by lust, after showing himself to be unconquered by toil.""
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3191
#Quotes"Cicero, I believe, had the habit of wrinkling up his nose, which indicates a scornful disposition. Such movements may arise in us unnoticed."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.193
#Facts""When life is over, we are taught to live. A hundred scholar shave caught the pox before coming to read Aristotle On Temperance. Cicero used to say that though he should live two men'lives, he would never have the leisure to read the lyric poets;"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.72
#Quotes"And Quintus Cicero puts the same thing from a meaner point of view when he says: 'One who thinks he cannot pay you a debt can never be your friend."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.309
#Quotes"As for Cicero, the works of his which best serve my purpose are those that treat of philosophy, especially moral philosophy. But to confess the truth boldly - for once one has leapt the barriers of audacity, one is quite of all restraint - this style of writing, and the style of others like him, strikes me as tiresome. His preambles, definitions, classifications, and etymologies take up the greater part of his work; such life and pith as it has is smothered by these long-drawn-out preliminaries. If I have spent an hour reading him, which is a long time for me, and consider what sap and substance I have drawn from him, I generally find nothing but wind, for he has not yet come to the arguments that support his case, or to the reasoning that properly applies to the problem I am concerned with."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.168
#Disagree"Even among those who, all things considered, have reckoned that Cicero's eloquence was incomparable, there have been some who have not failed to find faults with it, his friend the great Brutus among them, who said it was a broken and emasculated eloquence - fractal et elumbem. The orators around his own day also blamed him for his careful striving after a particular long cadence at the end of his periods, and especially noted the words esse videatur* that he so often places there. For myself, I prefer a cadence that ends more abruptly on a sequence of iambics. Also, he sometimes, though not often, mixes his rhythms very roughly. One particular instance has struck my ear: 'ego vero me minus diu senem esse mallem, quam esse senemtante quam essem.'f"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.170
#Analysis"Cicero's way is right for addressing a judge whom one wishes to convince by fair means or foul, or for using on children, and the common people, with whom nothing must be left unsaid, in the hope that something will hit the mark. I do not want anyone to spend his time arousing my attention and shouting at me fifty times"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.168
#Agrees"So Cicero, when, reciting the several opinions of the nature of the soul, he found a musician that held the soul was but a harmony, saith pleasantly, 'This man has not gone outside the limits of his own art'."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 146
#Quotes"These are summarily the works and acts, wherein the merits of many excellent princes and other worthy personages have been conversant. As for any particular commemorations, I call to mind what Cicero said, when he gave general thanks; 'It is difficult to mention everybody;it would or ungracious to omit anyone': Let us rather, according to the Scriptures, look unto that part of the race which is before us than look back to that which is already attained. First, therefore, amongst so many great foundations."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 171
#Quotes"And therefore in that style or addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in use, 'Of happy, of pious, of good memory', we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes, that j 'good fame is all that a dead man can possess' which possession I cannot but note that in our times it Heth mudi waste, and that therein there is a deficience."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 182
#Quotes"So we see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and his school, that he was the first that separated philosophy and rhetoric; whereupon rhetoric became an empty and verbal art."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 182
#Quotes"And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great experience, delivered it plainly, that whatsoever a man shall have occasion to speak of, (if he will take the pains) he may have it in effect premeditate, and handled in thesis; so that when he cometh to a particular, he shall have nothing to do but to put to names and times and places, and such other circumstances of individuals."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 223
#Quotes"So saith Cicero in great commendation of Catothe second, that he had applied himself to philosophy 'not for the sake of arguing like a philosopher, but that he might live like one'."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 255
#Quotes"Again, is there not a caution likewise to be given of the doctrines of moralities themselves (some kinds of them), lest they make men too precise, arrogant, incompatible; as Cicero saith of Cato, ' The divine and excellent qualities we see in Marcus Cato are his own; but the defects we sometimes find are derived not from his nature but from his teachers'"
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 262
#Quotes"A man may destroy the force of his words with his countenance: so may he of his deeds, saith Cicero; recommending to his brother affability and easy access; 'it is of no use to have an open door and shut countenance’; it is nothing won to admit men with an open door, and to receive them shut and reserved countenance."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 265
#Quotes"That 'he presupposes that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by fear, and therefore that he seek to have every man obnoxious, low, and in strait', which the Italians call 'seminar spine', to sow thorns; or that other principle contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, 'Let friends fall, provided our enemies perish with them',"
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 267
#Quotes"there is such a state of magnanimity as Rome. Of this state hear what Cicero saith:’Rate ourselves as highly as we may, Conscript Fathers, yet we cannot match the Spaniards in numbers, the Gauls in body strength, the Carthagianians in craft the Greek in art, nor our own Italians and Latins in the home bred and native patriotism characteristic of this land and nation. But our piety, our religion, and our recognition of the one great truth of the Divine government of all things - these are the points wherein we have surpassed all nations and peoples.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 373
#Quotes"Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin; 'You answer, with one eye row hoisted to your forehead and the other bent down to your chin, that you do not approve of cruelty’’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 390
#Quotes"To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy. Cicero, writing to Atticus of Pompey his preparation against Caesar, saith, 'Pompey plans are quite Them is to clean; for he thinks that the mastery of the sea means the mastery of the war’. And, without doubt, Pompey had tired out Caesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that way. We see the great effects of battles by sea.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 402
#QuotesBook & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 402
"For certainly great riches have sold more n:en than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, 0 use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Yet have no abstract nor frialy contempt of them. But distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, 'In striving to increase his wealth, it was apparent that he sought not prey for his avarice, but an instrument for his goodness'."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 410
#Quotes"To pass from the seat to the house itself; we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art; who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator, whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof. For it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escuria and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair0 room in them.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 428
#Quotes"For if you observe the words well, it is no other method than that which brute beasts are capable of, and do put in use; which is a perpetual intending or practicing someone thing, urged and imposed by an absolute necessity of conservation of being: for so Cicero saith very truly, 'Practice applied to one thing often accomplishes more than nature and art'."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 220
#Agrees"Fourthly, the ordering of exercises is matter of great consequence to hurt or help; for as is well observed by Cicero, men in exercising their faculties, if they be not well advised, do exercise their faults and get ill habits as well as good; so as there is a great judgment to be had in the continuance and intermission of exercises:."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 242
#Agrees"But let Cicero be read in his oration pro Marcello, which is nothing but an excellent table of Caesar's virtue, and made to his face; besides the example of many other excellent persons, wiser a great deal than such observers; and we will never doubt, upon a full occasion, to give just praises to present or absent."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 253
#Analysis"Cicero writeth to his brother De petition consulatus (being the only book of business that I know written by the ancients), although it concerned a particular action then on foot, yet the substance thereof consisteth of many wise and politic axioms, which contain not a temporary but a perpetual direction in the case of popular elections."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 267
#Analysis"we see what Cicero saith of him; 'Alter' (meaning of Caesar) 'He does not refuse, but in a manner demands, to be called what he is - tyrant 'So we may see in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, that Augustus Caesar in his very entrance into affairs, when he was a dealing of the senate, yet in his harangues to the people would-swear'By hope of attaining his fathers honours', which was no less than the cyranny, save that, to help it he would s~etch forth his hand towards a statua of Caesar's that was erected 1n the place: whereat many men laughed and wondered and said: Is it possible? Or did you ever hear the like? And yet thought he meant no hurt, he did it so handsomely and ingenuously."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 281
#Analysis"In Cicero, I saw that during his banishment (which was almost two years) he was so saftened and dejected, as he wrote nothing but a few womanish epistles. And yet, m mine opiruon, he had the least reason of the three to be discouraged: for that though it was judged, and judged by the highest kind of Judgment, in the form of a statute or law, that he should be banished, and his whole estate confiscated and seized, and his houses pulled down, and that it should be highly penal for' any man to propound his repeal; yet his case even then had no great blot of ignominy; but it was thought but a tempest of popularity which overthrew him."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 329
#Facts"You’re asking, ‘What is the point of this introduction? What’s the purpose?’ I won’t hide it from you. I want, if possible, to use the term‘essential’ with your approval; but if that is not possible I will use the term even if it annoys you. I can cite Cicero as an authority for this word, an abundantly influential one in my view."
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.4
#Quotes"You demand from me more frequent letters. Let’s compare accounts:you’ll be in no position to pay your debt. Our agreement was that your contributions would come first, that you would write and I would reply. But I won’t be intransigent; I know you are a good credit risk. So I will give in advance and will not do what Cicero, an extremely eloquent man, asks Atticus to do, that is to ‘jot down whatever came into his head, even if he had nothing to say.’"
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.72
#Quotes"Then said she: 'This debate about providence is an old one, and is vigorously discussed by Cicero in his "Divination"; thou also hast long and earnestly pondered the problem, yet no one has had diligence and perseverance enough to find a solution."
Book & Page: Boethius IV.
#Quotes"For the aspect of honest is derived from the appetite, since the honest is "what is desirable for its own sake" [Cicero, De Invent. Rhet. ii, 53]. But the beautiful regards rather the faculty of vision, to which it is pleasing. Therefore, the beautiful is not the same as the honest."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.5944
#Quotes"Wherefore Cicero, following their opinion (De Tusc. Quaest. iii, 4) calls all passions "diseases of the soul": whence he argues that "those who are diseased are unsound;and those who are unsound are wanting in sense.""
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2781
#Quotes"Further, Cicero says (Quaest. Tusc. iv, 4,6) that "we fear when they are yet to come, those things which give us pain when they are present." But it is possible for one to be pained or sorrowful on account of the evil of sin. Therefore, one can also fear the evil of sin."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3008
#Quotes"Further, counsel is an act of reason, in thinking and deliberating about the future. But a certain fear "drives away all thought, and dislocates the mind," as Cicero observes (De Quaest.Tusc. iv, 8). Therefore, fear does not conduce to counsel, but hinders it."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3025
#Quotes": Further, Isidore (De sum. bono i, 10) says that "demons learn more things by experience." But experimental knowledge is discursive: for, "one experience comes of many remembrances, and one universal from many experiences," as Aristotle observes(Poster. ii; Metaph. vii). Therefore, an angel's knowledge is discursive."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p. 1587
#Quotes"It would seem that anger is in the concupiscence faculty.For Cicero says (De Quaest. Tusc. iv, 9) that anger is a kind of "desire." But desire is in the concupiscence faculty. Therefore, anger is too."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3046
#Quotes"Further, Cicero says (De Invent. Rhet. ii) that "virtue is a habit like a second nature, in accord with reason." But since every human virtue is directed to man's good, it must be in accord with reason: since man's good "consists in that which agrees with his reason," as Dionysius states (Div. Nom. iv). Therefore, every virtue is a moral virtue."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3191
#Quotes"Again, temperance is said to be brave, by reason of fortitude overflowing into temperance: in so far, to wit, as he whose mind is strengthened by fortitude against dangers of death, which is a matter of very great difficulty, is more able to remain firm against the onslaught of pleasures; for as Cicero says (De Offic. i), "it would be inconsistent for a man to be unbroken by fear, and yet vanquished by cupidity; or that he should be conquered by lust, after showing himself to be unconquered by toil.""
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.3191
#Quotes""When life is over, we are taught to live. A hundred scholar shave caught the pox before coming to read Aristotle On Temperance. Cicero used to say that though he should live two men'lives, he would never have the leisure to read the lyric poets;"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.72
#Quotes"And Quintus Cicero puts the same thing from a meaner point of view when he says: 'One who thinks he cannot pay you a debt can never be your friend."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.309
#Quotes"So Cicero, when, reciting the several opinions of the nature of the soul, he found a musician that held the soul was but a harmony, saith pleasantly, 'This man has not gone outside the limits of his own art'."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 146
#Quotes"These are summarily the works and acts, wherein the merits of many excellent princes and other worthy personages have been conversant. As for any particular commemorations, I call to mind what Cicero said, when he gave general thanks; 'It is difficult to mention everybody;it would or ungracious to omit anyone': Let us rather, according to the Scriptures, look unto that part of the race which is before us than look back to that which is already attained. First, therefore, amongst so many great foundations."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 171
#Quotes"And therefore in that style or addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in use, 'Of happy, of pious, of good memory', we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes, that j 'good fame is all that a dead man can possess' which possession I cannot but note that in our times it Heth mudi waste, and that therein there is a deficience."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 182
#Quotes"So we see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and his school, that he was the first that separated philosophy and rhetoric; whereupon rhetoric became an empty and verbal art."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 182
#Quotes"And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great experience, delivered it plainly, that whatsoever a man shall have occasion to speak of, (if he will take the pains) he may have it in effect premeditate, and handled in thesis; so that when he cometh to a particular, he shall have nothing to do but to put to names and times and places, and such other circumstances of individuals."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 223
#Quotes"So saith Cicero in great commendation of Catothe second, that he had applied himself to philosophy 'not for the sake of arguing like a philosopher, but that he might live like one'."
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 255
#Quotes"Again, is there not a caution likewise to be given of the doctrines of moralities themselves (some kinds of them), lest they make men too precise, arrogant, incompatible; as Cicero saith of Cato, ' The divine and excellent qualities we see in Marcus Cato are his own; but the defects we sometimes find are derived not from his nature but from his teachers'"
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 262
#Quotes"A man may destroy the force of his words with his countenance: so may he of his deeds, saith Cicero; recommending to his brother affability and easy access; 'it is of no use to have an open door and shut countenance’; it is nothing won to admit men with an open door, and to receive them shut and reserved countenance."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 265
#Quotes"That 'he presupposes that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by fear, and therefore that he seek to have every man obnoxious, low, and in strait', which the Italians call 'seminar spine', to sow thorns; or that other principle contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, 'Let friends fall, provided our enemies perish with them',"
Book & Page: Francis Bacon Oxford 267
#Quotes"there is such a state of magnanimity as Rome. Of this state hear what Cicero saith:’Rate ourselves as highly as we may, Conscript Fathers, yet we cannot match the Spaniards in numbers, the Gauls in body strength, the Carthagianians in craft the Greek in art, nor our own Italians and Latins in the home bred and native patriotism characteristic of this land and nation. But our piety, our religion, and our recognition of the one great truth of the Divine government of all things - these are the points wherein we have surpassed all nations and peoples.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 373
#Quotes"Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are wise by signs; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered him, he fetched one of his brows up to his forehead, and bent the other down to his chin; 'You answer, with one eye row hoisted to your forehead and the other bent down to your chin, that you do not approve of cruelty’’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 390
#Quotes"To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a monarchy. Cicero, writing to Atticus of Pompey his preparation against Caesar, saith, 'Pompey plans are quite Them is to clean; for he thinks that the mastery of the sea means the mastery of the war’. And, without doubt, Pompey had tired out Caesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that way. We see the great effects of battles by sea.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 402
#QuotesBook & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 402
"For certainly great riches have sold more n:en than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, 0 use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly. Yet have no abstract nor frialy contempt of them. But distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, 'In striving to increase his wealth, it was apparent that he sought not prey for his avarice, but an instrument for his goodness'."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 410
#Quotes"To pass from the seat to the house itself; we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art; who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator, whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof. For it is strange to see, now in Europe, such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escuria and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair0 room in them.’’
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 428
#Quotes"Cicero's way is right for addressing a judge whom one wishes to convince by fair means or foul, or for using on children, and the common people, with whom nothing must be left unsaid, in the hope that something will hit the mark. I do not want anyone to spend his time arousing my attention and shouting at me fifty times"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.168
#Agrees"For if you observe the words well, it is no other method than that which brute beasts are capable of, and do put in use; which is a perpetual intending or practicing someone thing, urged and imposed by an absolute necessity of conservation of being: for so Cicero saith very truly, 'Practice applied to one thing often accomplishes more than nature and art'."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 220
#Agrees"Fourthly, the ordering of exercises is matter of great consequence to hurt or help; for as is well observed by Cicero, men in exercising their faculties, if they be not well advised, do exercise their faults and get ill habits as well as good; so as there is a great judgment to be had in the continuance and intermission of exercises:."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 242
#Agrees"Hence it is evident that Cicero was wrong in disapproving (De Tusc. Quaest. iii, 4) of the Peripatetic theory of a mean in the passions, when he says that "every evil, though moderate, should be shunned; for, just as a body, though it is moderately ailing, is not sound; so, this mean in the diseases or passions of the soul, is not sound." For passions are not called"diseases" or "disturbances" of the soul, save when they are not controlled by reason."
Book & Page: Aquinas pdf p.2782
#Disagree"As for Cicero, the works of his which best serve my purpose are those that treat of philosophy, especially moral philosophy. But to confess the truth boldly - for once one has leapt the barriers of audacity, one is quite of all restraint - this style of writing, and the style of others like him, strikes me as tiresome. His preambles, definitions, classifications, and etymologies take up the greater part of his work; such life and pith as it has is smothered by these long-drawn-out preliminaries. If I have spent an hour reading him, which is a long time for me, and consider what sap and substance I have drawn from him, I generally find nothing but wind, for he has not yet come to the arguments that support his case, or to the reasoning that properly applies to the problem I am concerned with."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.168
#Disagree"Cicero, I believe, had the habit of wrinkling up his nose, which indicates a scornful disposition. Such movements may arise in us unnoticed."
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.193
#Facts"In Cicero, I saw that during his banishment (which was almost two years) he was so saftened and dejected, as he wrote nothing but a few womanish epistles. And yet, m mine opiruon, he had the least reason of the three to be discouraged: for that though it was judged, and judged by the highest kind of Judgment, in the form of a statute or law, that he should be banished, and his whole estate confiscated and seized, and his houses pulled down, and that it should be highly penal for' any man to propound his repeal; yet his case even then had no great blot of ignominy; but it was thought but a tempest of popularity which overthrew him."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 329
#Facts"In the ordinary course of study I came upon a certain book of Cicero’s, whose language almost all admire, though not his heart. This particular book of his contains an exhortation to philosophy and was called Hortensius.61 Now it was this book which quite definitely changed my whole attitude and turned my prayers toward thee, O Lord, and gave me new hope and new desires. Suddenly every vain hope became worthless to me, and with an incredible warmth of heart I yearned for an immortality of wisdom and began now to arise that I might return to thee. It was not to sharpen my tongue further that I made use of that book. I was now nineteen;my father had been dead two years,62 and my mother was providing the money for my study of rhetoric"
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.33
#Praise"Since at that time, as thou knowest, O Light of my heart, the words of the apostle were unknown to me, I was delighted with Cicero’s exhortation, at least enough so that I was stimulated by it, and enkindled and inflamed to love, to seek,to obtain, to hold, and to embrace, not this or that sect, but wisdom itself, wherever it might be"
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.34
#Praise"For many of my years perhaps twelve had passed away since my nineteenth, when, upon the reading of Cicero’s Hortensius, I was roused to a desire for wisdom."
Book & Page: Saint Augustin Confessions pdf p.103
#Praise"There can never be a lack of things for me to write about, even though I pass over all those things which fill Cicero’s letters: who is having trouble with his election campaign, who is campaigning with someone else’s resources and who with his own, who relies on Caesar in seeking the consulship, who relies on Pompey, and who relies on money, what a heartless loan shark Caecilius is—those near and dear to him cannot get a penny out of him at less than one percent a month! It is better to deal with one’s own faults than those of other people, to examine oneself and to see how many things one is campaigning for, and not to canvass for someone else"
Book & Page: Seneca pdf p.72
#Analysis"Even among those who, all things considered, have reckoned that Cicero's eloquence was incomparable, there have been some who have not failed to find faults with it, his friend the great Brutus among them, who said it was a broken and emasculated eloquence - fractal et elumbem. The orators around his own day also blamed him for his careful striving after a particular long cadence at the end of his periods, and especially noted the words esse videatur* that he so often places there. For myself, I prefer a cadence that ends more abruptly on a sequence of iambics. Also, he sometimes, though not often, mixes his rhythms very roughly. One particular instance has struck my ear: 'ego vero me minus diu senem esse mallem, quam esse senemtante quam essem.'f"
Book & Page: Michael Montaigne p.170
#Analysis"But let Cicero be read in his oration pro Marcello, which is nothing but an excellent table of Caesar's virtue, and made to his face; besides the example of many other excellent persons, wiser a great deal than such observers; and we will never doubt, upon a full occasion, to give just praises to present or absent."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 253
#Analysis"Cicero writeth to his brother De petition consulatus (being the only book of business that I know written by the ancients), although it concerned a particular action then on foot, yet the substance thereof consisteth of many wise and politic axioms, which contain not a temporary but a perpetual direction in the case of popular elections."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 267
#Analysis"we see what Cicero saith of him; 'Alter' (meaning of Caesar) 'He does not refuse, but in a manner demands, to be called what he is - tyrant 'So we may see in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, that Augustus Caesar in his very entrance into affairs, when he was a dealing of the senate, yet in his harangues to the people would-swear'By hope of attaining his fathers honours', which was no less than the cyranny, save that, to help it he would s~etch forth his hand towards a statua of Caesar's that was erected 1n the place: whereat many men laughed and wondered and said: Is it possible? Or did you ever hear the like? And yet thought he meant no hurt, he did it so handsomely and ingenuously."
Book & Page:Francis Bacon Oxford 281
#Analysis