Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Morally, a philosopher who uses his professional competence for anything except a disinterested search for truth is guilty of a kind of treachery.

We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.

In the very books in which philosophers bid us scorn fame, they inscribe their names.

Without sounding pompous, I really do feel that I have a set of standards that I must adhere to, even leaving aside considerations of what the readers expect.

Men are guided less by conscience than by glory; and yet the shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.

Further, in writing, I feel corrupt and unethical if I have to look up a subject in a library as part of the writing itself. This acts as a filter--it is the only filter. If the subject is not interesting enough for me to look it up independently, for my own curiosity or purposes, and I have not done so before, then I should not be writing about it at all, period. It does not mean that libraries (physical and virtual) are not acceptable; it means that they should not be the source of any idea.

A married philosopher belongs to comedy.

Morality may exist in an atheist without any religion, and in a theist with a religion quite unspiritual.

The minute you try to talk business with him he takes the attitude that he is a gentleman and a scholar, and the moment you try to approach him on the level of his moral integrity he starts to talk business.

The Lives of Great Men are more oft' at variance with their profess'd Phillosophies than consistent with 'em.

Rough Johnson, the great moralist.

It's my opinion that every one I know has morals, though I wouldn't like to ask. I know I have. But I'd rather teach them than practice them any day. "Give them to others"-that's my motto.

What we take for virtue is often nothing but an assemblage of different actions, and of different interests, that fortune or our industry knows how to arrange.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

You have the quality of your work and the integrity with which you do it.

There's a morality... I think there's a moral compass but whether that comes from religion or just from being a good person, and where one starts and the other begins... I'm a good person, I hope. But I'm never as good as I want to be, never as nice as I want to be, never as generous as I want to be.

Integrity is congruence between what you know, what you profess, and what you do.

You will never win if you don't deal with your work ethically. All that you need to do is to stick to your principles; morals are relative.

Temptations make one very censorious. If you are virtuous you condemn the wicked and if you are wicked, you condemn the virtuous.

My father liked to moralize, and so do I. But he was in earnest, while I am embarrassed and pretend that I am merely being witty.

So I've decided to be a very rich and famous person who doesn't really care about money, and who is very humble but who still makes a lot of money and is very famous, but is very humble and rich and famous.

Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays.

The most important thing in a person's life is his faith and how he translates his faith into practical deeds.

Morality is nothing but a struggle for safety

What is the chief end of man?-to get rich. In what way?-dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must.