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Tacitus Quotes
b. 117
Publius Tacitus (or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus; c. 56–after 117 AD), Roman orator, lawyer, and senator. He is considered one of antiquity's greatest historians.
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103 quotes
Rulers always hate and suspect the next in succession.
To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.
The more corrupt the state, the more laws.
Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent.
He possessed simplicity and liberality, qualities which beyond a certain limit lead to ruin.
Laying aside his resentment, he stores it up to bring it forward with increased bitterness.
It is the eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, motion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns.
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
Benefits are acceptable, while the receiver thinks he may return them; but once exceeding that, hatred is given instead of thanks.
The proper qualities of a general are judgment and deliberation.
Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.
The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry.
Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader.
Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters.
They shone forth the more that they were not seen.
We accomplish more by prudence than by force.
Even war is better than a wretched peace.
The most seditious is the most cowardly.
Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.
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