Tacitus Quotes
-
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.
-
All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.
-
In all things there is a law of cycles.
-
I am my nearest neighbour.
-
A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
-
In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
-
None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].
-
The persecution of genius fosters its influence.
-
The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us,is seldom entered by a sail from our world.
-
We are corrupted by good fortune.
-
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
-
Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.
-
In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.
-
The unknown always passes for the marvellous.
-
None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
-
If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.
-
The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
-
The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
-
All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish.
-
That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
-
They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.