Imperium Quotes
"If you find yourself stuck in politics, the thing to do is start a fight – start a fight, even if you do not know how you are going to win it, because it is only when a fight is on, and everything is in motion, that you can hope to see your way through."
"Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them."
"A man in my position would have to be mad to tangle with Hortensius and Verres combined, and all for the sake of some Sicilian who is not even a Roman citizen."
"I propose an amendment: That whereas Sthenius has been prosecuted in his absence, it is agreed that no trial of him in his absence shall take place, and that if any such trial has already taken place, it shall be invalid."
"I received 2,235,417 sesterces. I expended on wages, grain, payments to legates, the proquaestor, the praetorian cohort 1,635,417 sesterces. I left 600,000 at Ariminum."
"She fell on that wretched freedman like a tigress out of a tree. I almost felt sorry for the fellow."
"You will never conquer Rome, Cicero, if you cannot rule your wife."
"Speaking in the forum is comparable to running in a race. It requires stamina and strength."
"Remember Demosthenes: 'Only three things count in oratory. Delivery, delivery, and again: delivery.'"
"In politics there is no credit to be won by timidity."
"What better service I can do my country at the present time!"
"Roman justice is the fairest system in the world!"
"This prosecution is a very formidable and a very painful undertaking."
"I could wish, gentlemen, had it only been possible."
"I earnestly advise you to examine your own mind."
"I am well acquainted with all this gentleman's methods of attack."
"He will have to make a radical change in his methods of defence."
"It rests with you, then, gentlemen, to choose the man whom you think best qualified by good faith, industry, sagacity and weight of character to maintain this great case before this great court."
"But Rome may think that an honourable, strict and energetic prosecutor like myself was not what you desired, and not what senators would ever desire."
"It is also a treasonable offence to insult the people and senate of Rome by impeding their appointed representative in his duties."
"If you will tell me how I am supposed to defeat time itself, then I will fight it bravely."
"There will be time enough to sleep when we are dead."
"A belief has become established – as harmful to the republic as it is to yourselves – that these courts, with you senators as the jury, will never convict any man, however guilty, if he has sufficient money."
"But the character of the man I am prosecuting is such that you may use him to restore your own good name."
"It is only ten days to the games of Pompey the Great. These will occupy fifteen days and will be followed immediately by the Roman Games."
"The day after tomorrow, for example – how are you placed?"
"The people of Sicily have never had a truer friend than me."
"Every time a blow landed, he said, "I am a Roman citizen.""
"I have already turned down an enormous sum from Crassus," replied Cicero.
"You have captured my voice exactly. How much do you want for him, Cicero?"
"The day that I am parted from Tiro," said Cicero, "is the day that I quit public life."
"As if any sane pirate would dream of sailing twenty miles up an open river to attack a defended city!"
"What is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"
"But by the time I did understand, it was too late."
"The only lasting glory is on the page – and I am no poet! – or on the battlefield."
"He had never written a speech for anyone else before, and it was a peculiar experience."
"In warfare, any hint of division at the top is fatal."
"I have watched your career with admiration, Cicero. You deserve the place you have won in Rome."
"Rome is not merely a matter of geography. Rome is not defined by rivers, or mountains, or even seas; Rome is not a question of blood, or race, or religion; Rome is an ideal. Rome is the highest embodiment of liberty and law that mankind has yet achieved in the ten thousand years since our ancestors came down from those mountains and learned how to live as communities under the rule of law."
"I would defend the blackest devil in hell if he was in need of an advocate. That is our system of law."
"The nerves should be as taut as bowstrings if the arrows are to fly."
"All things are full of deceit, snares and treachery."
"I am a new man. I seek the consulship. This is Rome."
"The honest citizen has nothing to fear from a law against bribery, and the dishonest should be reminded that a vote is a sacred trust, not a voucher to be cashed in once a year."
"Every so often, when I had to lean forward and press my eye to the fabric to check the identity of the speaker, did I realize the enormity of the risk I was taking."
"The force of his concentration seemed almost to penetrate the floorboards."
"And at the end of it, he is not even in office himself, but has filled the magistracies with ninnies like Hybrida and Lentulus Sura."
"If you were detected, I would negotiate your release, and I would pay any price to see that you were unharmed."
"The first man to whom you turned when you were prosecuted for robbery! Good enough to defend you, Mucius, but not good enough to defend the Roman people, is that it?"
"This could win you the election. All the decent men will rally to you."
"If what I have read here is true, the state is threatened with civil war as a result of a criminal conspiracy."