Talk:Cato the Elder

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  • An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.
  • An orator is a good man who is skilled in speaking.
  • Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth
  • Be firm or mild as the occasion may require.
  • Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.
    • Variant: Even though work stops, expenses run on.
  • Consider it the greatest of all virtues to restrain the tongue.
  • Vir bonus, dicendi peritus
    • A good man, skilled in speaking. [Definition of an orator]
  • Do not expect good from another's death.
  • Don't promise twice what you can do at once.
  • From lightest words sometimes the direst quarrel springs.
  • I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.
    • Variants: He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.
  • I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.
    • Response when asked during a celebration of a new statue being dedicated to some other public figure, why there were no statues of him.
      Variants: I had far rather that people should ask why there is no statue of me than why there is one.
      After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
  • In conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve.
  • In doing nothing men learn to do evil.
  • It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.
    • Variant: It is difficult to speak to the belly, because it has no ears.
  • Lighter is the wound foreseen.
  • Not that I might die learned—but that I might not die unlearned.
  • Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternatives.
  • Patience is the greatest of all virtues.
  • Should anyone attempt to deceive you by false expressions, and not be a true friend at heart, act in the same manner, and thus art will defeat art.
    • Variant: If you would catch a man let him think he is catching you.
  • The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.
  • The worst ruler is one who cannot rule himself.
  • 'Tis sometimes the height of wisdom to feign stupidity.
  • We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
  • In my life, I have never repented but of three things: that I trust a woman with a secret, that I went by sea when I might have gone by land, and that I passed a day with idleness.