Tacitus Quotes
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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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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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So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.
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Everything unknown is magnified.
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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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Deos fortioribus adesse.
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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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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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Quanquam severa illic matrimonia
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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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I am my nearest neighbour.
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Keen at the start, but careless at the end.
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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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People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
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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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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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In all things there is a kind of law of cycles.
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Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
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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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The unknown always passes for the marvellous.
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Some might consider him as too fond of fame; for the desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.
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Benefits received are a delight to us as long as we think we can requite them; when that possibility is far exceeded, they are repaid with hatred instead of gratitude.