Top 124 Quotes & Sayings by Livy
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Roman historian Livy.
Last updated on September 16, 2024.
The result showed that fortune helps the brave.
The populace is like the sea motionless in itself, but stirred by every wind, even the lightest breeze.
Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never.
Woe to the conquered.
He will have true glory who despises it.
Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.
Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.
The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.
It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.
There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.
Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them.
The sun has not yet set for all time.
It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.
No crime can ever be defended on rational grounds.
In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.
Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes.
All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident.
They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.
It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.
Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies' resources, and minimized their own.
There are laws for peace as well as war.
No law can possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be beneficial on the whole and to the majority.
Temerity is not always successful.
From abundance springs satiety.
There is always more spirit in attack than in defence.
Men are only clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.
Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.
Many difficulties which nature throws in our way, may be smoothed away by the exercise of intelligence.
There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.
Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.
There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.
We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.
Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.
Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.
The troubles which have come upon us always seem more serious than those which are only threatening.
This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
No one wants to be excelled by his relatives.
The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself - something that's in all of us, I think, a little piece of God just waiting to be discovered.
Envy, like flames, soars upwards.
We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.
I have often heard that the outstanding man is he who thinks deeply about a problem, and the next is he who listens carefully to advice.
Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
Friends should be judged by their acts, not their words.
He is truly a man who will not permit himself to be unduly elated when fortune's breeze is favorable, or cast down when it is adverse.
Truth is often eclipsed but never extinguished.
Adversity makes men remember God.
It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
Men are slower to recognize blessings than evils.
There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.
We can endure neither our vices nor their cure.
Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.
The mind sins, not the body; if there is no intention, there is no blame.
Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and good sense at the same time.
Never is work without reward, or reward without work.
In grave difficulties, and with little hope, the boldest measures are the safest.
The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid.
Prosperity engenders sloth.
Avarice and luxury, those evils which have been the ruin of every great state.
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