Top 220 Quotes & Sayings by Tacitus - Page 4

Posterity gives to every man his true honor. [Lat., Suum cuique decus posteritas rependet.]

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.

The desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.

The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry. [Lat., Facetiarum apud praepotentes in longum memoria est.]

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.

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.

What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

The solitude lends much appeal, because a sea without a harbour surrounds it. Even a modest boat can find few anchorage, and nobody can go ashore unnoticed by the guards. Its winter is mild because it is enclosed by a range of mountains which keeps out the fierce temperature; its summer is unequal. The open sea is very pleasant and it has a view of a beautiful bay.

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.

Even the bravest men are frightened by sudden terrors.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.

It is a principle of human nature to hate those whom we have injured.

When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened. [Lat., Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas.]

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.]

They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses , with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes , was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia .

There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.

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

Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful outline.

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

Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end. [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]

It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of peace. [Lat., Bellum magis desierat, quam pax coeperat.]

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.

It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.

The love of fame is a love that even the wisest of men are reluctant to forgo.

Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils. [Lat., Potentiam cautis quam acribus consiliis tutius haberi.]

Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters. [Lat., Modestiae fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est.]

Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.

Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]

The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.

Zealous in the commencement, careless in the end.

All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish. [Lat., Omnia inconsulti impetus coepta, initiis valida, spatio languescunt.]

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

The images of twenty of the most illustrious families the Manlii, the Quinctii, and other names of equal splendour were carried before it [the bier of Junia]. Those of Brutus and Cassius were not displayed; but for that very reason they shone with pre-eminent lustre.

The views of the multitude are neither bad nor good. [Lat., Neque mala, vel bona, quae vulgus putet.]