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Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Cato

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Cato

Ceterum censeo—But my decided opinion is.

Contra verbosos noli contendere verbis; / Sermo datur cunctis, animi sapientia paucis—Don’t contend with words against wordy people; speech is given to all, wisdom to few.

Emas non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est: / Quod non opus est, asse carum est—Buy not what you want, but what you need; what you don’t want is dear at a cent.

Flee sloth, for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body.

Habemus luxuriam atque avaritiam, publice egestatem, privatim opulentiam—We have luxury and avarice, but as a people poverty, and in private opulence.In Sallust.

Homines nihil agendo discunt male agere—By doing nothing men learn to do ill.

It is a great shame to a man to have a poor heart and a rich purse.

It is better for a young man to blush than to turn pale.

It takes much more penetration to discover a fool than a clever man.

Life I leave, as I would leave an inn, rather than a home; nature having given it us more as a sort of hostelry to stop at, than as an abiding dwelling-place.In Cicero.

Quod non opus est, asse carum est—What you don’t need is dear at a doit.

Regard not dreams, since they are but the images of our hopes and fears.

Sat cito si sat bene—Quick enough, if well enough.

Speech is the gift of all, but thought of few.

To succeed in the world it is much more necessary to be able to diagnose a fool than a clever man.