Cato the Younger Quotes (-95--46)


About Cato the Younger

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis ('of Utica'; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Latin: Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the preservation of what he saw as old Roman values in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a powerful political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar and Pompey.

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β€œI will begin to speak when I am not going to say what were better left unsaid.”
β€œNay, men, if any of you had heeded what I was ever foretelling and advising, ye would now neither be fearing a single man nor putting your hopes in a single man.”
Cato the Younger
β€œBear in mind, that if through toil you accomplish a good deed, that toil will quickly pass from you, the good deed will not leave you so long as you live; but if through pleasure you do anything dishonourable, the pleasure will quickly pass away, that dishonourable act will remain with you for ever.”
Cato the Younger

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Cato the Younger on Evil

β€œThe authors of great evils know best how to remove them.”
Cato the Younger

Quotes About Cato the Younger

Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Cato the Younger from others.

Edmund Burke on Cato the Younger

β€œIt is worth observing, how we feel ourselves affected in reading the characters of CΓ¦sar, and Cato, as they are so finely drawn and contrasted in Salust. In one, the ignoscendo, largiundo; in the other, nil largiundo. In one, the miseris perfugium; in the other, malis perniciem. In the latter we have much to admire, much to reverence, and perhaps something to fear; we respect him, but we respect him at a distance. The former makes us familiar with him; we love him, and he leads us whither he pleases.”
Cato the Younger

The victorious cause pleased the gods on Cato the Younger

β€œVictrix causa deis placuit, sed vieta Catoni.”

James Thomson on Cato the Younger

β€œUnconquer’d Cato, virtuous in extreme.”

About Cato the Younger

Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis ('of Utica'; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger (Latin: Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the preservation of what he saw as old Roman values in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a powerful political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar and Pompey.
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