Oratory

I climbed from Arpinum to the consulship with no inheritance but a cultivated mind, so do not tell me safety is the only prudence.

I bet on myself when the wager was my life, so I will not counsel you to timidity.

I will not counsel you to wait for a more convenient season, because the time is always ripe to do right, and a calling deferred…

Child, I walked out of slavery with a baby on my hip and a quarter in my pocket, and the man who owned me stood there asking how…