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For the fame of riches and beauty is fickle and frail, while virtue is eternally excellent.

— Sallust Bellum Catilinae (-44)

Nam divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habetur.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Chapter I; Variant translation

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More quotes by Sallust

The man who is roused neither by glory nor by danger it is in vain to exhort; terror closes the ears of the mind.

Only a few prefer liberty, the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.

The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither their good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity.

Get good counsel before you begin: and when you have decided, act promptly.

But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raises to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sallust (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.