Tacitus Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.

Tacitus
All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.

Tacitus
He had talents equal to business, and aspired no higher.

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

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

Tacitus
The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.
Variant translation: when the republic was in its greatest decay laws were most numerous

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

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

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

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

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

Tacitus
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt

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

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

Tacitus
What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tacitus
The soldiers have the plunder of a city that is stormed, the generals of one which capitulates.

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

Tacitus
It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

Tacitus
War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.

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

Tacitus
No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.

Tacitus
These times having the rare good fortune that you may think what you like and say what you think.

Tacitus