Tacitus Quotes
-
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.
-
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.
-
Keen at the start, but careless at the end.
-
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.
-
By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.
-
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.
-
Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.
-
It is a part of the nature of man to resist compulsion.
-
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.
-
Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.
-
It is of eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, and motion to excite it; and it brightens as it burns.
-
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.
-
Whatever is unknown is magnified.
-
What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.
-
Following Emporer Nero's command, "Let the Christians be exterminated!:" . . . they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport; they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.
-
They terrify lest they should fear.
-
People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
-
In all things there is a kind of law of cycles.
-
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.
-
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.
-
The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.
-
You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter
-
Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.
-
Reckless adventure is the fool's hazard.