Tacitus Quotes
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It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.
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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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None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
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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.
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He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.
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All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.
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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.
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A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
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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.
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Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
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This I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.
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Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.
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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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I am my nearest neighbour.
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The persecution of genius fosters its influence.
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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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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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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.
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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.
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We are corrupted by good fortune.
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None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
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Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.
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In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
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All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish.