Cicero

For what difference does it make whether a man is actually transformed into a beast or whether, keeping the outward appearance of a man, he has the savage nature of a beast within?

For can occasions for worry, anxiety, fear by day and by night, and a life all beset with plots and perils be of advantage to anybody?

But if these things which seem so very advantageous are not advantageous because they are full of shame and moral wrong, we ought to be quite convinced that nothing can be expedient that is not morally right.

If supremacy is to be sought for the sake of glory, crime should be excluded, for there can be no glory in crime; but if it is power for its own sake that is sought, whatever the price, it cannot be expedient if it is linked with shame.

If that accomplishes nothing, he will take him to task; he will even threaten; and in the end, if things point to the destruction of the state, he will sacrifice his father to the safety of his country.

No more binding are those promises which are inexpedient for the persons themselves to whom they have been given.

He ought to have broken his vow rather than commit so horrible a crime.

Promises are, therefore, sometimes not to be kept; and trusts are not always to be restored.

I believe you should not; for you would be acting against the state, which ought to be the dearest thing in the world to you.

Thus there are many things which in and of themselves seem morally right, but which under certain circumstances prove to be not morally right: to keep a promise, to abide by an agreement, to restore a trust may, with a change of…

Nay; can what is inexpedient for the state be expedient for any individual citizen?

People overturn the fundamental principles established by nature, when they divorce expediency from moral rectitude.

For we all seek to obtain what is to us expedient; we are irresistibly drawn toward it, and we cannot possibly be otherwise.

But because we cannot discover it anywhere except in good report, propriety, and moral rectitude, we look upon these three for that reason as the first and the highest objects of endeavour, while what we term expediency we account not so…

But in taking an oath it is our duty to consider not what one may have to fear in case of violation but wherein its obligation lies: an oath is an assurance backed by religious sanctity; and a solemn promise given, as before God as one's…

For the question no longer concerns the wrath of the gods (for there is no such thing) but the obligations of justice and good faith.

For what more competent witness do we ask for than one of the foremost citizens of Rome, who voluntarily faced torture for the sake of being true to his moral duty?

But if they mean to adopt it as a principle, that a pledge given to the faithless is no pledge, let them look to it that it be not a mere loophole for perjury that they seek.

I seem already to see the people estranged from the Senate, and the most important affairs at the mercy of the multitude.

For you may be sure that more people will learn how to set such things in motion than how to stop them.

We must therefore impress upon good men that, should they become inevitably involved in friendships with men of this kind, they ought not to consider themselves under any obligation to stand by friends who are disloyal to the republic.

Bad men must have the fear of punishment before their eyes: a punishment not less severe for those who follow than for those who lead others to crime.

For who, in heaven's name, would choose a life of the greatest wealth and abundance on condition of neither loving or being beloved by any creature?

Who can love one whom he fears, or by whom he knows that he is feared?

For not only is Fortune blind herself; but she generally makes those blind also who enjoy her favours.