Tacitus Quotations | Page 2

None make a greater show of sorrow than those who are most delighted.

Kindness, so far as we can return it, is agreeable.

It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.

It is a part of the nature of man to resist compulsion.

It is more reverent to believe in the works of the Deity than to comprehend them.

By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.

Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt

No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations.

The task of history is to hold out for reprobation every evil word and deed, and to hold out for praise every great and noble word and deed.

The changeful change of circumstances. [Lat., Varia sors rerum.]

Whatever is unknown is magnified.

Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.

The injustice of a government is proportional to the number of its laws.

The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

It is a characteristic of the human mind to hate the man one has injured.

There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.

That cannot be safe which is not honourable.

Keen at the start, but careless at the end.

I am my nearest neighbour.

It is found by experience that admirable laws and right precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.

Bottling up his malice to be suppressed and brought out with increased violence.

The views of the multitude are neither bad nor good. [Lat., Neque mala, vel bona, quae vulgus putet.]

The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry. [Lat., Facetiarum apud praepotentes in longum memoria est.]

[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]

In all things there is a kind of law of cycles. [Lat., Rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis.]

We are corrupted by good fortune. [Lat., Felicitate corrumpimur.]

Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters. [Lat., Modestiae fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est.]

If we must fall, we should boldly meet the danger. [Lat., Si cadere necesse est, occurendum discrimini.]

All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish. [Lat., Omnia inconsulti impetus coepta, initiis valida, spatio languescunt.]

Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent. [Lat., Praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non videbantur.]

Conspicuous by his absence.

Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety reforms the rich.

Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose. [Lat., Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit.]

Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils. [Lat., Potentiam cautis quam acribus consiliis tutius haberi.]

A woman once fallen will shrink from no impropriety.

It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of peace. [Lat., Bellum magis desierat, quam pax coeperat.]

There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.

Adversity deprives us of our judgment.

When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened. [Lat., Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas.]

Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]

We accomplish more by prudence than by force. [Lat., Plura consilio quam vi perficimus.]

Yet the age was not so utterly destitute of virtues but that it produced some good examples. [Lat., Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit.]

Remedies are slower in their operation than diseases.

If we must fall, we should boldly meet our fate.

The desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.

The persecution of genius fosters its influence.

The hatred of those who are near to us is most violent.

The solitude lends much appeal, because a sea without a harbour surrounds it. Even a modest boat can find few anchorage, and nobody can go ashore unnoticed by the guards. Its winter is mild because it is enclosed by a range of mountains which keeps out the fierce temperature; its summer is unequal. The open sea is very pleasant and it has a view of a beautiful bay.

Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.

Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.

Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.

In careless ignorance they think it civilization, when in reality it is a portion of their slavery...To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false pretenses, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.

The customs of the Jews are base and abominable and owe their persistence to their depravity. Jews are extremely loyal to one another, always ready to show compassion, but towards every other people they feel only hate and enimity. As a race (the Jews are not a race, because they have mingled with the other races to the point that they are only a people, not a race), they are prone to lust; among themselves nothing is unlawful.

It is human to hate those whom we have injured.

The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.

In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.

The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.

Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.

Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.

Such being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think.

It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.

There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it; the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian Guard.

Augustus gradually increased his powers, taking over those of the senate, the executives and the laws. The aristocracy received wealth and position in proportion to their willingness to accept slavery. The state had been transformed, and the old Roman character gone for ever. Equality among citizens was completely abandoned. All now waited on the imperial command.

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.

The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.

[The Jews have] an attitude of hostility and hatred towards all others.

Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.

Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.

The lust of dominion burns with a flame so fierce as to overpower all other affections of the human breast.

One who is allowed to sin, sins less

Custom adapts itself to expediency.

The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.

Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.

You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter

Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.

No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.

The gods are on the side of the stronger.

In seasons of tumult and discord bad men have most power; mental and moral excellence require peace and quietness.

The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.

When the State is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.

Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.

In all things there is a law of cycles.

Valor is the contempt of death and pain.

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

Rulers always hate and suspect the next in succession. [Lat., Suspectum semper invisumque dominantibus qui proximus destinaretur.]

They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

Corruptisima republica plurimae leges.

They make a desert and call it peace.

Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.

Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.

Everything unknown is magnified. [Lat., Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.]

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.