Tacitus - Annals (117 AD)

21 Sourced Quotes

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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
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt

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

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
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
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
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.

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

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

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

Tacitus
The images of the most illustrious families... were carried before it [the bier of Julia]. Those of Brutus and Cassius were not displayed; but for that reason they shone with preeminent luster.

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

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

Tacitus
He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising".

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

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

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

Tacitus