Suetonius Quotes & Sayings

If you did not know at age five that the gods are made up beings and the myths made up stories, you are a fool. — Suetonius

Some people are slow to do what they promise; you are slow to promise what you have already done. — Suetonius

So much for the Emperor; the rest of this history must deal with the Monster.
- IV:22 — Suetonius

As for Gaius, he has no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse dry-shod across the Gulf of Baiae. — Suetonius

Let the die be cast.
[Lat., Jacta alea esto; or, jacta esa alea.) — Suetonius

These things by reason of our friendship I have not hesitated glo to communicate. — Suetonius

The fox changes his skin but not his habits. — Suetonius

Few of Caesar's assassins outlived him by more than three years, or died in their beds. — Suetonius

As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he [ Claudius ] expelled them [the Jews] from Rome — Suetonius

At a banquet Caligula was suddenly seized with a fit of helpless laughter. The consuls reclining next to him asked if they might share in the imperial merriment. Caligula, wiping the tears from his eyes, managed to gasp, "You'll never guess! It suddenly occurred to me that I had only to give a single nod, and both your throats would be cut on the spot." — Suetonius

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system. — Suetonius

A good shepherd shears his flock, not flays them.
[Lat., Boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubere.] — Suetonius

Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. — Suetonius

The die is cast.
- — Suetonius

On reflecting at dinner that he had done nothing to help anybody all day, he uttered these memorable and praiseworthy words: Friends, I have lost a day. — Suetonius

He [Caesar Augustus] found a city built of brick; he left it built of marble.
[Lat., Urbem lateritiam accepit, mamoream relinquit.] — Suetonius

Hail, Caesar, those who are about to die salute thee.
- — Suetonius

Again, during a sacrifice, the augur Spurinna warned Caesar that the danger threatening him would not come later than the Ides of March. — Suetonius

General Quotations about Evenings Let us add this one more night to our lives. — Suetonius

When I am dead let the earth be dissolved in fire. — Suetonius

Upon the whole, he added nothing to his own happiness by all the dangers, the fatigues, and the perpetual anxiety which he had incurred in the pursuit of unlimited power. — Suetonius

Suetonius, in holding up a mirror to those Caesars of diverting legend, reflects not only them but ourselves: half-tamed creatures, whose great moral task is to hold in balance the angel and the monster within - for we are both, and to ignore this duality is to invite disaster. — Suetonius