Tacitus Quotes
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Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.
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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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I am my nearest neighbour.
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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.
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Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals.
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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.
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That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
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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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So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.
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We are corrupted by good fortune.
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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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Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
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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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Such being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think.
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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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Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.
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The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
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The desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.
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By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.
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In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.