Quotes by Tacitus

• The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
• The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
• Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
• Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
• Things forbidden have a secret charm.
• Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.
• Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.
• Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
• To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.
• Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.
• Love of fame is the last thing even learned men can bear to be parted from.
• Victor and vanquished never unite in substantial agreement.
• We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.
• When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
• When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.
• To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.
• All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end.
• A bad peace is even worse than war.
• A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.
• No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
• Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
• Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
• All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.
• Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.
• Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
• It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
• Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.
• Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
• He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.
• In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.
• Custom adapts itself to expediency.
• A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.
• When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.