Tacitus Quotes - Page 3

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

The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.

A cowardly populace which will dare nothing beyond talk. [Lat., Vulgus ignavum et nihil ultra verba ausurum.]

The hatred of relatives is the most violent.

So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

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

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.

Rumor is not always wrong

The lust of fame is the last that a wise man shakes off.

Experience teaches. [Lat., Experientia docet.]

[The Jews have] an attitude of hostility and hatred towards all others.

Deos fortioribus adesse. The gods support those who are stronger.

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

In all things there is a law of cycles.

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

All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

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

We accomplish more by prudence than by force. [Lat., Plura consilio quam vi perficimus.]

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

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

They make a desert and call it peace.

Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.