Tacitus Quotes

66 Sourced Quotes

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

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
So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.

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

Tacitus
Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.

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

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

Tacitus
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.

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
Think, therefore, as you advance to battle, at once of your ancestors and your posterity.

Tacitus
Some might consider him as too fond of fame; for the desire for glory clings even to the best men longer than any other passion.

Tacitus
It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt.

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

Tacitus
There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it; the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian Guard.

Tacitus
Under Domitian not the smallest part of one's misery was to see and be seen.

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

Tacitus
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt

Tacitus
Lust of absolute power is more burning than all the passions.

Tacitus
He [Nerva] has united things long incompatible, the principate and liberty.

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

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

Tacitus
The desire of glory is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.

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

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

Tacitus
Good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.

Tacitus