Tacitus Quotes

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

The worst hatred is that of relatives.

A bad peace is even worse than war.

Such being the happiness of the times, that you may think as you wish, and speak as you think.

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

Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.

He (Tiberius) was wont to mock at the arts of physicians, and at those who, after thirty years of age, needed counsel as to what was good or bad for their bodies.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.

The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.

A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.

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

Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals.

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

Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.

It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

Rumor is not always wrong

The unknown always passes for the marvellous.

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

Keen at the start, but careless at the end.

The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.

Victor and vanquished never unite in substantial agreement.

Greater things are believed of those who are absent.

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

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.

In all things there is a law of cycles.

More faults are often committed while we are trying to oblige than while we are giving offense.

The persecution of genius fosters its influence.

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

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

The hatred of relatives is the most violent.

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.

People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

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

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

In seasons of tumult and discord bad men have most power; mental and moral excellence require peace and quietness.

Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose. [Lat., Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit.]

Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.

Valor is the contempt of death and pain.

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

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers.

Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.

It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.

They make solitude, which they call peace.

None mourn more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it [a death].

Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.

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.

I am my nearest neighbour.

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.