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When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

Prima enim sequentem, honestum est in secundis, tertiisque consistere.

Original text (Latin)

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Ambition

More quotes by Cicero

I never cease urging peace, which, however unfair, is better than the justest war in the world.

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.

No sensible man (among the many things that have been written on this kind) ever imputed inconsistency to another for changing his mind.

That he was never less at leisure than when at leisure; nor that he was ever less alone than when alone.

There is nothing better fitted to delight the reader than change of circumstances and varieties of fortune.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Cicero (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.