Cato the Elder (234 BC-149 BC)

Marcus Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Censor, the Elder and the Wise, was a Roman soldier, senator, and historian known for his conservatism and opposition to Hellenization. He was the first to write history in Latin with his Origines, a now fragmentary work on the history of Rome. His work De agri cultura, a treatise on agriculture, rituals, and recipes, is the oldest extant prose written in the Latin language. His epithet "Elder" distinguishes him from his great-grandson Senator Cato the Younger, who opposed Julius Caesar.

Quotes

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.

Silence
We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.

Gossip
Grasp the subject, the words will follow.

Language
Even though work stops, expenses run on.
Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.

Mistakes
An orator is a good man who is skilled in speaking.
Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth.
From lightest words sometimes the direst quarrel springs.
Lighter is the wound foreseen.
Patience is the greatest of all virtues.

Patience
Tis sometimes the height of wisdom to feign stupidity.