Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Among the enduring truths I keep bumping into when there is the luxury of time to get to know people or institutions, is that their decisions are often made for what are not, strictly speaking, reasons of logic.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings, and not by the intellect.

Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

Nothing is more fallacious than to expect to produce any valuable or permanent results in political projects by relying merely on the reason of men. Men are ... for the most part governed by the impulses of passion.

Economic theory does not work with human beings. We are far too messy.

Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or by thought.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

Innately, there are qualities in human beings that are always repetitive. There are things like love and hate and jealousy that are just going to be there forever.

To say that man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.

I think a lot of people are curious about what makes people do what they do, and I guess my curiosity isn't hidden in any way.

Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist.

No one does anything from a single motive.

People and nations act on the basis of what they feel rather than what is real.

The hazards of politics come not from campaigns and elections, as might be supposed, but rather from the nature of the creature that engages in politics. Ambition, love, jealousy, hate and the many emotions and reactions man is heir to frequently affect the course of nation and world more than principles or circumstances or events.

… people are far from acting generally according to the dictates of their interests, but oftener in consequence of their passions, though it may even prove injurious to their interests.

That's the world we live in: when it comes to economics, people have emotions; it's not like chemistry or physics.

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.

You meet people, and you're like, 'I don't know how I feel about you,' and someone does something surprising that changes your mind. We're interesting creatures; we're nuanced, complicated and layered, and we make all sorts of choices.

We're humans, and we're moved by emotions.

There appears to be but two grand master passions or movers in the human mind, namely, love and pride. And what constitutes the beauty or deformity of a man's character is the choice he makes under which banner he determines to enlist himself. But there is a strong distinction between different degress in the same thing and a mixture of two contraries.

Although every man believes that his decisions and resolutions involve the most multifarious factors, in reality they are mere oscillation between flight and longing.

Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.

As man's love or hatred, so he. Love and hatred exist only personified.