Skip to content

For such is the work of philosophy: it cures souls, draws off vain anxieties, confers freedom from desires, drives away fears.

— Cicero Tusculanae Disputationes – Tusculan Disputations (-45)

M: Nam efficit hoc philosophia: medetur animis, inanes sollicitudines detrahit, cupiditatibus liberat, pellit timores.

Original text (Latin)

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Book II, Chapter IV; translation by Andrew P. Peabody

Topics

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.

All Cicero quotes →

You may also like

You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

Julian Assange

What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?

Abraham Lincoln

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

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.