Tacitus Quotes
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In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
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He (Tiberius) was wont to mock at the arts of physicians, and at those who, after thirty years of age, needed counsel as to what was good or bad for their bodies.
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Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.
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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.
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None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
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He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.
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No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.
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The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.
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Viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur.
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In all things there is a law of cycles.
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Everything unknown is magnified.
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Deos fortioribus adesse.
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Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.
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They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia.
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Posterity will pay everyone their due.
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Pacem sine dubio post haec, verum cruentam.
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Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful outline.
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It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.
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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.
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The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
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Ne Tiberium quidem caritate aut rei publicae cura successorem adscitum, sed quoniam adrogantiam saevitiamque eius introspexerit, comparatione deterrima sibi gloriam quaesivisse.
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To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.
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So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.
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A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.