49 Famous Roman Quotes That Every Leader Should Know

Roman Empire Quotes

• "You have control over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius

• "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it the city of marbles." - Augustus

• "Cherish the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." - Marcus Aurelius

• "An angry man is again angry with himself when he returns to reason." - Publilius Syrus

• "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I love Rome more." - Julius Caesar

• "So much for the Emperors; the rest of this history must deal with the Monster." - Suetonius

• "All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine." - Socrates

• "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

• "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the order to revoke at any moment." - Marcus Aurelius

• "It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience." - Julius Caesar

• "I’m never less at leisure than when at leisure, or less alone than when alone." - Scipio Africanus

• "Great empires are not maintained by timidity." - Tacitus

• "The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Ancient Roman Quotes

• "If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice." - Titus Maccius Plautus

• "Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach our journey’s end." - Tullius Cicero

• Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness." - Titus Livius

• "Say not always what you know, but always know what you say." - Tiberius Claudius Augustus Germanicus

• "As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can." - Julius Caesar

• "The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all first considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful." - Edward Gibbon

• "If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed." - Marcus Aurelius

• "There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it." - Publius Ovidius Naso

• "The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else." - Aristotle 

• "May the world near and far dread the sons of Aeneas, and if there be land that feared not Rome, may it love Rome instead." - Ovid

Roman Quotes About War

• "Accept the things to which fate binds you." - Marcus Aurelius

• "Which death is preferable to every other? The unexpected." - Julius Caesar

• "Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good." - Marcus Aurelius

• "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." - Marcus Aurelius

• "If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it." - Julius Caesar

• "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once." - Julius Caesar

• "I love the name of honor more than I fear death." - Julius Caesar

• "Can anyone be proved innocent, if it be enough to have accused him?" - Flavius Cludius Julianus

• "I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life." - Julius Caesar

• "Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." - Marcus Aurelius

• "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." - Marcus Aurelius

• "Fear is proof of a degenerate mind." - Publilius Vergilius Maro

• "The lofty pine is often shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash, And the lightning strikes the highest mountain." - Horace

• "Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man." - Gaius Plinius Secundus

Famous Roman Quotes

Roman Quotes - Photo by Ulrike Leone from Pixabay

• "Those most moved to tears by every word of a preacher are generally weak and a rascal when the feelings evaporate." - Gaius Sallustius Crispus

• "An unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

• "I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome." - Julius Caesar

• "The greatest impediments to changes in our traditional roles seem to lie not in the visible world of conscious intent, but in the murky realm of the unconscious mind." - Augustus

• "Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's will and is not easy." - Aristotle

• "Would that the Roman people had but one neck!" - Caligula

• "Men willingly believe what they wish." - Julius Caesar

• "It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life." - Julius Caesar

• "A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them." - Quintus Horatius Flaccus

• "Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach our journey’s end." - Marcus Tullius Cicero

• "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end." - Marcus Annaeus Seneca

• "The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life." - Marcus Annaeus Lucanus