Tacitus Quotes
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People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.
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All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish.
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Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.
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Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.
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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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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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The unknown always passes for the marvellous.
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None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
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By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.
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If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.
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Conspicuous by his absence.
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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.
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The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
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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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That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
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In all things there is a kind of law of cycles.
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What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.
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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.
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The most seditious is the most cowardly.
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Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.
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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.
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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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Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
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So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.