Livy Quotes

60 Sourced Quotes

We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.

Livy
In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.

Livy
The populace is like the sea, motionless in itself, but stirred by every wind, even the lightest breeze.

Livy
Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.

Livy
Men are only too clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.

Livy
It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.

Livy
Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.

Livy
The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

Livy
We do not learn this only from the event, which is the master of fools.

Livy
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.

Livy
Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection.

Livy
It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.

Livy
War is just to those for whom it is necessary, and arms are clear of impiety for those who have no hope left but in arms.

Livy
Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.

Livy
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.

Livy
Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.

Livy
Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits.

Livy
There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.

Livy
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.

Livy
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.

Livy
Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them.

Livy
The worst kind of shame is that caused by parsimony or poverty.

Livy
For he considered that, in many cases, but especially in war, mere appearances have had all the effect of realities; and that a person, under a firm persuasion that he can command resources, virtually has them; that very prospect inspiring him with hope and boldness in his exertions.

Livy
There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.

Livy
Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.

Livy