Tacitus Quotes
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Pacem sine dubio post haec, verum cruentam.
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War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.
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It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.
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The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.
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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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Posterity will pay everyone their due.
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A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.
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The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair through fear alone.
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There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.
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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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None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
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The views of the multitude are neither bad nor good.
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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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In all things there is a law of cycles.
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Expugnatae urbis praedam ad militem, deditae ad duces pertinere.
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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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Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
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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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All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.
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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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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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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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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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Quanquam severa illic matrimonia