Tacitus Quotes
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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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None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
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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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He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, 'with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising'.
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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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In all things there is a law of cycles.
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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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Everything unknown is magnified.
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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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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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Posterity will pay everyone their due.
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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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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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Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.
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Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.
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Deos fortioribus adesse.
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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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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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So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.
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Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
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A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.