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.