Tacitus Quotes
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Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies.
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The lust of dominion burns with a flame so fierce as to overpower all other affections of the human breast.
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It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of peace.
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Power won by crime no one ever yet turned to a good purpose.
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The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.
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Neglected, calumny soon expires, show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.
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Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man.
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Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader.
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To rob, to ravage, to murder, in their imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have made the world a solitude, they call it peace.
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There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.
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In the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course.
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We accomplish more by prudence than by force.
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If we must fall, we should boldly meet our fate.
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The hatred of those who are near to us is most violent.
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Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.
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Rulers always hate and suspect the next in succession.
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Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end.
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Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims.
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Posterity allows to every man his true value and proper honours.
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Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.
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This I hold to be the chief office of history, to rescue virtuous actions from the oblivion to which a want of records would consign them, and that men should feel a dread of being considered infamous in the opinions of posterity, from their depraved expressions and base actions.
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It is more reverent to believe in the works of the Deity than to comprehend them.
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It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.
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It is common, to esteem most what is most unknown.