Tacitus Quotes
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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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Quanquam severa illic matrimonia
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All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.
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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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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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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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Deos fortioribus adesse.
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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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Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
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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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People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
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Keen at the start, but careless at the end.
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Everything unknown is magnified.
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I am my nearest neighbour.
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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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The persecution of genius fosters its influence.
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So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.
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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.
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Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.
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A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
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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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He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.
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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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Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.