Tacitus Quotes
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Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.
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All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish.
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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.
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In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
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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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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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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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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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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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The most seditious is the most cowardly.
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The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
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That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
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Whatever is unknown is magnified.
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A cowardly populace which will dare nothing beyond talk.
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What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.
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In all things there is a kind of law of cycles.
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By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.
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Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
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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.
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Reckless adventure is the fool's hazard.
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More faults are often committed while we are trying to oblige than while we are giving offense.
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People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
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Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family.
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Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.