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If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.
Tacitus -
For I deem it to be the chief function of history to rescue merit from oblivion, and to hold up before evil words and evil deeds the terror of the reprobation of posterity.
Tacitus
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We are corrupted by good fortune.
Tacitus -
I am my nearest neighbour.
Tacitus -
The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
Tacitus -
The word liberty has been falsely used by persons who, being degenerately profligate in private life, and mischievous in public, had no hope left but in fomenting discord.
Tacitus -
None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
Tacitus -
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.
Tacitus
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None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
Tacitus -
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.
Tacitus -
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
Tacitus -
In all things there is a law of cycles.
Tacitus -
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.
Tacitus -
Scutum reliquisse praecipuum flagitium, nec aut sacris adesse aut concilium inire ignominioso fas; multique superstites bellorum infamiam laqueo finierunt.
Tacitus
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There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.
Tacitus -
Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.
Tacitus -
In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
Tacitus -
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.
Tacitus -
Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.
Tacitus -
All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish.
Tacitus
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Benefits received are a delight to us as long as we think we can requite them; when that possibility is far exceeded, they are repaid with hatred instead of gratitude.
Tacitus -
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.
Tacitus -
Some might consider him as too fond of fame; for the desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.
Tacitus -
On the whole,one would say that their strength is in their infantry, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably adapted to the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their country, and stationed in front of the line.
Tacitus