Tacitus Quotes

66 Sourced Quotes

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

Tacitus
On the whole, one would say that their strength is in their infantry, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably adapted to the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their country, and stationed in front of the line.

Tacitus
Great eloquence, like fire, grows with its material; it becomes fiercer with movement, and brighter as it burns.

Tacitus
Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted.

Tacitus
Their shields are black, their bodies dyed. They choose dark nights for battle, and, by the dread and gloomy aspect of their death-like host, strike terror into the foe, who can never confront their strange and almost infernal appearance.

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

Tacitus
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.

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

Tacitus
Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.

Tacitus
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt

Tacitus
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.

Tacitus
In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.

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

Tacitus
Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.

Tacitus
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.

Tacitus
Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.

Tacitus
When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.

Tacitus
No honor was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshiped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.

Tacitus
No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood.

Tacitus
The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us, is seldom entered by a sail from our world.

Tacitus
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.

Tacitus
Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.

Tacitus
He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.

Tacitus
Whatever is unknown is taken for marvelous; but now the limits of Britain are laid bare.

Tacitus
He seemed much greater than a private citizen while he still was a private citizen, and by everyone's consent capable of reigning if only he had not reigned.
Of the Emperor Galba

Tacitus
Fortune favored him... in the opportune moment of his death.

Tacitus
You were indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the distinction of your life, but also in the lucky timing of your death.

Tacitus
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.

Tacitus
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.

Tacitus
Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendor of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.

Tacitus