Tacitus Quotes

The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.

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

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

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

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

In valor there is hope.

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

Traitors are hated even by those whom they prefer.

The most seditious is the most cowardly.

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.

It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.

The Romans brought devestation, but they called it peace.

An honorable death is better than a dishonorable life. [Lat., Honesta mors turpi vita potior.]

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

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

The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.

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

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader.

Auctor nominis eius Christus,Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum, supplicio affectus erat. Christ, the leader of the sect, had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.

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

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

An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.

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

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

Things forbidden have a secret charm.

Custom adapts itself to expediency.

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.

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

One who is allowed to sin, sins less

Power won by crime no one ever yet turned to a good purpose.

This I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.

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

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

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.

They make a desert and call it peace.

A woman once fallen will shrink from no impropriety.

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

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

It is a part of the nature of man to resist compulsion.

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.

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

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.

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 .

The word liberty has been falsely used by persons who, being degenerately profligate in private life, and mischievous in public, had no hope left but in fomenting discord.

The grove is the centre of their whole religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient.

None make a greater show of sorrow than those who are most delighted.

It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.

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

It is found by experience that admirable laws and right precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.