quote · Source-linked selection
The wise are instructed by reason, ordinary minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and brutes by instinct.
The wise are instructed by reason, ordinary minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and brutes by instinct.
Approximate author period: c. 75 BC · classical
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Cicero
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 75 BC · classical
author lifetime midpoint (-106–-43)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- Dictionary of Quotations (1893) (1893 AD)
Printed citation: Cic. · page_462
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
The voice behind the words.
Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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