Tacitus Quotes
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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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Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals.
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By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.
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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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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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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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Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.
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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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Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.
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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.
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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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We are corrupted by good fortune.
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The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
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They terrify lest they should fear.
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The most seditious is the most cowardly.
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A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
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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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Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.
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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 desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.