“That which is most excellent, and is most to be desired by all happy, honest and healthy-minded men, is dignified leisure.”

— Cicero, Pro Sestio, 45

About Cicero

106 BC – 43 BC

Roman statesman, orator and philosopher, whose speeches and letters are among the most important sources on the late Roman Republic.

“Persistence in a single view has never been regarded as a merit in political leaders.”

“Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.”

“There is said to be hope for a sick man, as long as there is life.”

“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.”

“Knowledge, that tendeth but to satisfaction, is but as a courtesan, which is for pleasure, and not for fruit or generation.”

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness.”

“Knowledge is not happiness, and science but an exchange of ignorance for that which is another kind of ignorance.”

“A whole lifetime was too short to bring out the full flavour, to extract every ounce of pleasure, every shade of meaning.”