Tacitus Quotes

So by slow degrees the Britons were seduced by pleasant pastimes... until finally the gullible natives came to call their slavery "culture".

That cannot be safe which is not honourable.

When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.

Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.

For he would twist a word or a look into a crime and treasure it up in his memory.

Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.

Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety reforms the rich.

In all things there is a law of cycles.

An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.

People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.

Whatever is unknown is magnified.

A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.

Who, to say nothing about the perils of an awful and unknown sea, would have left Asia or Africa or Italy to look for Germany?

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.

Keen at the start, but careless at the end.

Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.

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.

The changeful change of circumstances.
[Lat., Varia sors rerum.]

The hatred of those who are near to us is most violent.

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.

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.

To ravage, to slaughter, to steal, this they give the false name of empire; and where they create a desert, they call it peace.

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure

Modern houses are so small we've had to train our dog to wag its tail up and down and not sideways.

The love of dominion is the most engrossing passion.

Everything unknown is magnified.
[Lat., Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.]

This is an unfair thing about war: victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone.

You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter

The desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.

[Asiaticus responds] Ask your sons, Suillius. They will testify to my masculinity.

A bad peace is worse than war.

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.

The gods are on the side of the stronger.

Tacitus has written an entire work on the manners of the Germans. This work is short, but it comes from the pen of Tacitus, who was always concise, because he saw everything at a glance.

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers.

Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.

We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times.
[Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.]

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.

Neglected, calumny soon expires, show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.

But the more I reflect on events recent and past, the more I am struck by the element of the absurd in everything humans do.

For it is the rare fortune of these days that a man may think what he likes and say what he thinks.

Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man.

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.

A bad peace is even worse than war.

Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.

It is more reverent to believe in the works of the Deity than to comprehend them.

Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.

Adversity deprives us of our judgment.

Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies.
[Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]

Rumor is not always wrong

In all things there is a kind of law of cycles.
[Lat., Rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis.]

Think of it. Fifteen whole years-no small part of a mans life.-taken from us-all the most energetic have fallen to the cruelty of the emperor. And the few that survive are no longer what we once were. Yet I find some small satisfaction in acknowledging the bondage we once suffered. Tacitus, The Agricola

Fortes et strenuos etiam contra fortunam insistere, timidos et ignoros ad desperationem formidine properare - the brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair through fear alone

Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions

Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.

If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.

All those things that are now field to be of the greatest antiquity were at one time new; what we to-day hold up by example will rank hereafter as precedent.

If we must fall, we should boldly meet our fate.

Bottling up his malice to be suppressed and brought out with increased violence.

In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.

To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.

No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.

By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.

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.
[Lat., Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.]

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.

The majority merely disagreed with other people's proposals, and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always seemed the one for which it was now too late.

It is the nature of the human disposition to hate him whom you have injured.

When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.

Yet the age was not so utterly destitute of virtues but that it produced some good examples.
[Lat., Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit.]

To be rich or well-born was a crime: men were prosecuted for holding or for refusing office: merit of any kind meant certain ruin. Nor were the Informers more hated for their crimes than for their prizes: some carried off a priesthood or the consulship as their spoil, others won offices and influence in the imperial household: the hatred and fear they inspired worked universal havoc. Slaves were bribed against their masters, freedmen against their patrons, and, if a man had no enemies, he was ruined by his friends.

In valor there is hope.

Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.

Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant. They make a wilderness and they call it peace.

Conspicuous by his absence.

It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.

Things forbidden have a secret charm.

Greater things are believed of those who are absent.

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.

Kindness, so far as we can return it, is agreeable.

Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted.

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.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

He was a strange mixture of good and bad, of luxury and industry, courtesy and arrogance. In leisure he was self-indulgent, but full of vigour on service. His outward behaviour was praiseworthy, though ill was spoken of his private life.

Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.

The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms, armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes

None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
[Lat., Nulla jactantius moerent quam qui maxime laetantur.]

All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.

The customs of the Jews are base and abominable and owe their persistence to their depravity. Jews are extremely loyal to one another, always ready to show compassion, but towards every other people they feel only hate and enimity. As a race (the Jews are not a race, because they have mingled with the other races to the point that they are only a people, not a race), they are prone to lust; among themselves nothing is unlawful.

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.

When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.

A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

In careless ignorance they think it civilization, when in reality it is a portion of their slavery ... To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false pretenses, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.

Benefits are acceptable, while the receiver thinks he may return them; but once exceeding that, hatred is given instead of thanks.
[Lat., Beneficia usque eo laeta sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere pro gratia odium redditur.]