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Who really said it

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others

Attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero 106 BCE – 43 BCE · Roman statesman, orator & philosopher
Attributed Free to reuse

The thought is genuinely Cicero’s: in Pro Plancio (54 BCE) he tells the jurors that of all virtues he most wishes to be grateful, “for this one virtue is not only the greatest but also the mater virtutum omnium reliquarum” — the mother of all the other virtues (Pro Plancio 33.80 ↗). But this exact English one-liner is a modern paraphrase: standard translations render the subject as “this one virtue” (Yonge) or “a grateful mind” (Ramage, 1884), not “Gratitude,” and the popular wording is first documented only in the 20th century.

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“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others” Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. —Marcus Tullius Cicero (paraphrased from Pro Plancio, 54 BCE)

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Provenance

The source

Work
Pro Plancio (In Defence of Cn. Plancius)
Delivered
54 BCE
Passage
Chapter 33, section 80
Translation
C. D. Yonge (“the parent of all the other virtues”)

Etenim, iudices, cum omnibus virtutibus me adfectum esse cupio, tum nihil est quod malim quam me et esse gratum et videri. Haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum. — “In truth, O judges, while I wish to be adorned with every virtue, yet there is nothing which I can esteem more highly than being and appearing grateful. For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.”

Cicero’s “this one virtue” (haec una virtus) points back to being grateful (gratum) — which is why the line is universally quoted as being about gratitude, even though the noun “gratitude” itself is supplied by later paraphrasers.

Cicero, Pro Plancio 33.80 (Perseus, Yonge translation)

How we traced it

  • Cicero delivered the Pro Plancio in 54 BCE, defending Cn. Plancius against a charge of electoral corruption; the gratitude passage sits at Pro Plancio 33.80 ↗.
  • The literal Latin — mater virtutum omnium reliquarum — means ‘mother of all the remaining virtues’; C. D. Yonge rendered it “the parent of all the other virtues” in his public-domain translation (Yonge translation ↗).
  • The exact popular one-liner is a 20th-century tightening: Wikiquote ↗ lists it as a variant translation traced to a 1950 periodical, alongside Craufurd Tait Ramage’s 1884 “A grateful mind is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the other virtues.”
Public domain

The underlying passage is Cicero’s Pro Plancio 80, in the public domain since antiquity. The exact English one-liner is a lightly modernized form of pre-1931, public-domain renderings — C. D. Yonge’s (“the parent of all the other virtues”) and Craufurd Tait Ramage’s 1884 “A grateful mind is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the other virtues.” The trivial word-swaps in the popular version add no new copyrightable authorship, so the wording is treated as public domain.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

Misquote, not misattribution

This is a case of accurate attribution but loose wording. The idea is authentically Cicero’s; the polished English sentence is a paraphrase, not any scholar’s translation.

Genuinely Marcus Tullius Cicero Authentic

The thought is his own, from Pro Plancio 80 (54 BCE): “Haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum” (Perseus ↗).

A modern paraphrase, not a standard translation Misquote

No scholarly translation reads “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” Yonge has “this one virtue… the parent of all the other virtues”; Ramage’s 1884 Great Thoughts from Latin Authors has “A grateful mind…” The exact popular form is traced only to a 1950 periodical (Wikiquote ↗).

Verdict: the wisdom is really Cicero’s, drawn straight from Pro Plancio 80, but the crisp one-liner is a 20th-century paraphrase of older public-domain renderings — so credit the thought to Cicero while noting the wording is not his exact translated text (Pro Plancio 33.80 ↗).

Context

Why it matters

The line is genuinely rooted in a Roman courtroom, not a book of maxims. Defending Cn. Plancius — who had sheltered Cicero during his exile — Cicero made his own gratitude the emotional core of the defence, arguing that to repay a benefactor is not merely decent but the root from which every other virtue grows.

That is why the thought has traveled so far: it elevates gratitude from a courtesy to a foundation. The catch for quoters is that the crisp modern sentence is a paraphrase — Cicero never wrote the word “gratitude” as the grammatical subject; translators and later editors supplied it.

For this one virtue is not only the greatest, but is also the parent of all the other virtues.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Gratitude Character

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Cicero, Pro Plancio 33.80 (Yonge translation)perseus.tufts.edu

The primary passage in C. D. Yonge’s public-domain English translation, with the Latin available alongside.
Cicero — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the Latin original and the variant translations, tracing the exact popular wording to a 1950 periodical and the 1884 Ramage rendering.
Cicero, Pro Plancio (Loeb Classical Library)loebclassics.com

N. H. Watts’s 1923 Loeb edition of the speech, with facing-page Latin and English.
Cicero: Gratitude quotequotationspage.com

A representative popular-quotation page attributing the exact wording to Cicero, Pro Plancio (54 B.C.).
Cicero — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyplato.stanford.edu

Scholarly overview of Cicero’s life, works, and moral philosophy for broader context.

About the author

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero

106–43 BCE · Roman statesman, orator & philosopher

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) was Rome’s most celebrated orator and a prolific writer on rhetoric, ethics, and politics whose Latin prose shaped European thought for two millennia. The Pro Plancio is one of his surviving forensic speeches, delivered in 54 BCE to defend his friend Cn. Plancius. His reflections on gratitude, duty, and the virtues run throughout his court speeches and philosophical works such as De Officiis.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Marcus Tullius Cicero. Pro Cn. Plancio [54 BCE], 33.80. Translated by C. D. Yonge, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero (London: George Bell & Sons, 1891). Latin: “Haec enim est una virtus non solum maxima sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Pro Plancio. Translated by C. D. Yonge, in The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, George Bell & Sons, 1891.

APA (7th ed.)

Cicero, M. T. (1891). Pro Plancio (C. D. Yonge, Trans.). In The orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero. George Bell & Sons. (Original work published 54 BCE)

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