Cato Quotes

“Tis not in mortals to command success; but we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

“Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honor is a private station.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

“The ways of heaven are dark and intricate;
Puzzled in mazes, and perplext with errors.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

“Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy, and Selected Essays

“Whoe’er is brave and virtuous, is a Roman.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“—How beautiful is death, when earned by virtue! 80 Who would not be that youth? what pity is it That we can die but once to serve our country!8 —Why sits this sadness on your brows, my friends? I should have blushed if Cato’s house had stood Secure, and flourished in a civil war. 85 —Portius, behold thy brother, and remember Thy life is not thy own, when Rome demands it.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Lucius There fled the greatest soul that ever warmed 100 A Roman breast. O Cato! O my friend! Thy will shall be religiously observed. But let us bear this awful corpse to Caesar, And lay it in his sight, that it may stand A fence betwixt us and the victor’s wrath; 105 Cato, though dead, shall still protect his friends. From hence, let fierce contending nations know What dire effects from civil discord flow. ’Tis this that shakes our country with alarms, And gives up Rome a prey to Roman arms, 110 Produces fraud, and cruelty, and strife, And robs the guilty world of Cato’s life.  [Exeunt omnes.]”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“—I’m sick to death—Oh when shall I get loose From this vain world, the abode of guilt and sorrow! —And yet methinks a beam of light breaks in On my departing soul. Alas! I fear 95 I’ve been too hasty. O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not!— The best may err, but you are good, and—oh!  [Dies.]”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.15”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Lose not a thought on me, I’m out of danger. Heaven will not leave me in the victor’s hand. Caesar shall never say, I conquered Cato. But, oh! my friends, your safety fills my heart With anxious thoughts: a thousand secret terrors 115 Rise in my soul: how shall I save my friends! ’Tis now, O Caesar, I begin to fear thee.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Would Lucius have me live to swell the number Of Caesar’s slaves, or by a base submission 30 Give up the cause of Rome, and own a tyrant?”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Trust me, Lucius, Our civil discords have produced such crimes, 5 Such monstrous crimes, I am surprised at nothing. —O Lucius! I am sick of this bad world! The day-light and the sun grow painful to me.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Let Caesar have the world, if Marcia’s mine.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Meanwhile we’ll sacrifice to liberty. Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights, The generous plan of power delivered down, From age to age, by your renowned forefathers, 75 (So dearly bought, the price of so much blood,) Oh let it never perish in your hands! But piously transmit it to your children. Do thou, great liberty, inspire our souls, And make our lives in thy possession happy, 80 Or our deaths glorious in thy just defence.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Thy nobleness of soul obliges me. But know, young prince, that valour soars above 50 What the world calls misfortune and affliction. These are not ills; else would they never fall On heaven’s first favourites, and the best of men: The gods, in bounty, work up storms about us, That give mankind occasion to exert 55 Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice Virtues which shun the day, and lie concealed In the smooth seasons and the calms of life.14 Juba I’m charmed whene’er thou talk’st! I pant for virtue! And all my soul endeavours at perfection. 60 Cato Dost thou love watchings,15 abstinence, and toil, Laborious virtues all? learn them from Cato: Success and fortune must thou learn from Caesar.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Decius A style like this becomes a conqueror. Cato Decius, a style like this becomes a Roman. Decius What is a Roman, that is Caesar’s foe? 40 Cato Greater than Caesar: he’s a friend to virtue.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato My life is grafted on the fate of Rome: Would he save Cato? Bid him spare his country.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Force us to yield. ’Twill never be too late To sue6 for chains and own7 a conqueror. Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time? No, let us draw her term of freedom out 95 In its full length, and spin it to the last, So shall we gain still one day’s liberty; And let me perish, but in Cato’s judgment, A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“While there is hope, do not distrust the gods;”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Cato Let not a torrent of impetuous zeal Transport thee thus beyond the bounds of reason:3 True fortitude is seen in great exploits, 45 That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides, All else is towering phrensy4 and distraction. Are not the lives of those who draw the sword In Rome’s defence intrusted to our care? Should we thus lead them to a field of slaughter, 50 Might not the impartial world with reason say We lavished at our deaths the blood of thousands, To grace our fall, and make our ruin glorious?”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Sit here, deliberating in cold debates, If we should sacrifice our lives to honour, Or wear them out in servitude and chains. Rouse up, for shame! our brothers of Pharsalia Point at their wounds, and cry aloud—To battle! 40 Great Pompey’s shade2 complains that we are slow, And Scipio’s ghost walks unrevenged amongst us!”
― Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays

“Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Thro' all her works), He must delight in virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy.”
― Joseph Addison, Cato