Marcus Tullius Cicero Quote 

"The budget should be balanced,
the Treasury should be refilled,
public debt should be reduced,
the arrogance of officialdom
should be tempered and controlled,
and the assistance to foreign lands
should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt.
People must again learn to work,
instead of living on public assistance."

by:
Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Date:
63 BC
Source:
attributed but questionable
Categories:
 
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Reader comments about this quote:
Sounds like the perfect answer to today's America. It's painfully obvious that Amerca's decline mirrors Rome's last days. The fools remained perched on couches worried about sports (or spectators watching the gladiators), the ignorant poor and illegal aliens drain society of dollars and commit crimes (as they did in Rome also). Corrupt leaders who have affairs publcly and make excuses for it. Wars against peoples whose only crime was being born in the wrong place. Lies, deceit, money disappearing; America would be so lucky to be so highly regarded.
 -- Gary, Checotah		 
If only we understood that it is not the "ignorant and poor" who are plundering our society, it is the rich and powerful... for they are the ones who enslave the masses and keep them ignorant and poor.
 -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US		 
If only we understood that socialism CREATES the "ignorant and poor" -- and just how is it that the ignorant, who have to rely on the "forced charity" of others and the poor, who do the same, are not plundering our society? TANSTAAFL!! This is one of the main reasons immigration is SO important! If we're going to have a mixed socialist/capitalist economy then we cannot allow ANYONE into our country illegally and keep our economy! If we're going to have a mixed economy we need to stand on our borders ready to shoot-to-kill any man, women, or child that seeks to come across illegally! Otherwise, get rid of our Socialist economy and welfare-state, and rid ourselves of the bloody leeches that are bleeding the country dry!
 -- Logan, Memphis, TN		 
Too soon we get old before we get smart!
 -- Mose, West Chester PA		 
Anonymous in Reston: Which schools did you attend where the rich and powerful were teaching students to be as ignorant as yourself?
 -- David L. Rosenthal, Hollywood		 
It is the same old story -- history repeating itself. It seems every powerful nation eventually reaches this point -- before it falls.
 -- E Archer, NYC		 
History repeating itself all over again.
 -- Yogi Bera, Here		 
I have nothing to say, Cicero has said it all!
 -- Brian D. Pickett, Tampa, Fl		 
Amen
 -- Me Again		 
is this quote accurate? What foreign assistance did Rome bestow on her neighbors? Rome was largely a plunder economy surrounded by client states, buffer kingdoms paying tribute. Plunder being somewhat antagonistic to foreign aid, buffering somewhat opposite dependency.
 -- Scott, DC		 
also, you can't really have public debt without banking. Any right winger in here know what type of society is founded on the ability to borrow against expected future income? Hint, it involves the word capital and didn't crop up for another many centuries. No way Cicero said this. Sorry fools.
 -- Scott, DC		 
Scott in DC: Ancient Rome may not have had a Federal Reserve, but laws regulating banking activities go back as far as ancient Babylonia and the Hammurabi Code. At the time of Cato, banking in Rome was rather sophisticated, and comprised interest charges on loans, as well as interest payments on deposits. Furthermore, while Rome certainly brought money INTO the city, there was also a large cash flow out - in terms of grain payments, payments to soldiers deployed over the provinces, etc.
 -- John Michael Roarke, Chicago		 
 -- ANNETTE, SUN CITY 
Regardless of whether or not this quote is accurate, I don't see how anyone - even the most biased liberal - can disagree with a single word of it.
 -- Kim, Canton, GA		 
As true today as it was in 63BC!
 -- doctorhugo, Mastic, New York		 
It looks like we have graduated from individuals relying on government assistance, to corporations relying on government assistance. How much longer can we last. We are just passing on the problem to our children and grandchildren.
 -- Bama Fan, Cullman, Alabama		 
Nice sentiment. Too bad Cicero never said it. It has been twisted from an actual quote to match current conditions. The real quote is "The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."
 -- Heywood, Argonne		 
 -- Anonymous 
Actual quote was "The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall." They did not have public assistance in ancient Rome. People who handle money, then and now, do not do real work and are as such a bigger drain on the economic activities of others.
 -- David, Reading		 
Cicero never said anything of the sort, since the Romans of the first century BC were busily engaged in exploiting foreign lands, not helping them! He DOES complain about this exploitation in the Verrine orations. He NEVER would say that the Romans would go broke helping foreign lands. The quote is fiction, from Taylor Caldwell's A Pillar of Iron (historical novel, written in 1965). A Cicero Scholar
 -- Ciceronianus, Boston		 
This 'quote' is from a movie, not from Cicero.
 -- bup, Glenview, IL		 
Since none of us were there, nobody knows if he actually quoted it or not, but what it says is true.
 -- emmie, omaha		 
Sounds like the United States of America. Yes, when Rome conquered a land, they had to take care of it, somewhat. And yes they did have public assistance in Rome, it usually came in the form of food. A good read along these lines is Richard Maybury's book "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy"
 -- Mark, Marsing		 
The quote is apocryphal
 -- L S Oliveira, Lisbon, Portugal		 
Look this "quote" up on Snopes, where people who know Cicero expose it as pure bunk. Strange how it's rightwingers who always fall for this sort of baloney. If I were so consistently gullible, I'd begin to question what Limbaughism was doing to my mind.
 -- john Woodford, ann arbor		 
Actual quote that has been expounded on. "The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall." Also I watched this kind of activity by leftwingers who were not happy in past years. It seems to be human nature to accept what we want to be true left/right/or middle....
 -- Knox, Seattle		 
To those of you, who like me, doubt the veracity of this quote: How do we find an authoritative source to definitely confirm or repudiate it? If in fact it is not true how do we trust anything on this site?
 -- Cynical, Akron		 
let's try to use something other than "snopes" and "truthorfiction.com" as our end all be all source (fyi, if snopes used to have this quote on there, they took it off as of 4/21 probably because they realized they were the ones reporting bunk!)...congressional record vs snopes, I pick congressional record seeing as snopes probably just employs 16 year old computer junkies.... Congressional Record, April 25, 1968, vol. 114, p. 10635.
 -- Anonymous,, Chicago		 
Funny how the "left-wingers" always resort to name calling rather than citing accurate facts. Must not be any to support their logic. Way to got anonymous in Chicago.
 -- Matt, Pittsburgh		 
To good to be thru!
 -- Al, Washington D.C.		 
 -- Anonymous 
This is a fake. If Cicero had really said this, there would be evidence from before 1965. Beyond that, Rome also didn't provide 'assistance to foreign lands' so it all feels like a manufactured quote, invoking Cicero to provide the illusion of historical validity to a modern political position.
 -- Laird Popkin, NYC		 
It's a well-known fake.
 -- Svatopluk, Olomouc		 
As with all translations, you have to take into consideration the interpratation of the latin words. Most likely the quote is original but adapted through interpretation. Only a true Cicero scholar, that knows his work by heart would be able to shed lights into the veridicity of the quote. Nevertheless, true or fake, belonging to Cicero or to an anonymous guy, the meaning of it is what matters. That, is true to the bone! We have to stop relaying on government, we have to stop overspending, we have to stop sliding on the leftist path wich leads to socialism/communism. I grew up in a country behind the Iron Courtain and I know first hand what socialism/communism can do. Wake up people, why do you think these regimes failed all over the globe?
 -- Hadrian, Twin Cities		 
 -- Citizen, Miami, Fl 
Hadrian makes the essential points. Who disagrees that our country, within its means, should live and grow and assist others to do likewise, and that we should limit how our servants in government behave and serve, and that as adults we should shed unnecessary dependency?
 -- FamouslyUnknown, Hackensack NJ		 
You need only to pose the question to the poor: Where would you like to live, America or a socialist country of your choosing? We have more, as citizens, than any other country in the world because of the freedom and opportunity that a capitalist economy provides and a constitutional republic protects. The latter is under assault. Don't fear socialism, fear the regulatory state where bills are voted on but those not elected make and enforce the regulations that steal your freedom.
 -- SelfGoverend, Happydale, MI		 
Re-written embellishment of Cicero's original.
 -- Anonymous		 
The real quote is: "budget should exsisto pondera. Publicus debitum should redeo. superbia of persona should exsisto tempero, quod suffragium ut extrarius terra should exsisto velum lest Rome decoctum." - Cicero 55 B.C. Arguing over literal translation is only a diversion from arguing the real points (a well known tact from the liberals in this country). Libs always attack the messenger, and not the message!
 -- Seamoor, St. George, UT		 
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