Tacitus Quotes & Sayings

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards. — Tacitus

All those things that are now field to be of the greatest antiquity were at one time new; what we to-day hold up by example will rank hereafter as precedent. — Tacitus

Tacitus has written an entire work on the manners of the Germans. This work is short, but it comes from the pen of Tacitus, who was always concise, because he saw everything at a glance. — Tacitus

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it. — Tacitus

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

If we must fall, we should boldly meet our fate. — Tacitus

In all things there is a law of cycles. — Tacitus

A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin. — Tacitus

Posterity will pay everyone their due. — Tacitus

Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader.
[Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.] — Tacitus

The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity. — Tacitus

The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them. — Tacitus

To rob, to ravage, to murder, in their imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have made the world a solitude, they call it peace.
[Lat., Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.] — Tacitus

For he would twist a word or a look into a crime and treasure it up in his memory. — Tacitus

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws. — Tacitus

A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man. — Tacitus

Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant. They make a wilderness and they call it peace. — Tacitus

He was a strange mixture of good and bad, of luxury and industry, courtesy and arrogance. In leisure he was self-indulgent, but full of vigour on service. His outward behaviour was praiseworthy, though ill was spoken of his private life. — Tacitus

Bodies are slow of growth, but are rapid in their dissolution.
[Lat., Corpora lente augescent, cito extinguuntur.] — 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

An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one. — Tacitus

That cannot be safe which is not honourable. — Tacitus

When perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed. — Tacitus

None make a greater show of sorrow than those who are most delighted. — Tacitus

By general consent, he would have been capable of ruling, had he not ruled. — Tacitus

A bad peace is even worse than war. — Tacitus

Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay. — Tacitus

Rarely will two or three tribes confer to repulse a common danger. Accordingly they fight individually and are collectively conquered. — Tacitus

Following Emporer Nero's command, "Let the Christians be exterminated!:" ... they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport; they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights. — Tacitus

Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end.
[Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.] — Tacitus

All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome. — Tacitus

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

Miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari. Even war is preferable to a shameful peace. — Tacitus

The love of fame is a love that even the wisest of men are reluctant to forgo. — Tacitus

The hatred of those who are near to us is most violent. — Tacitus

We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times.
[Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.] — Tacitus

If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise. — Tacitus

Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it. — Tacitus

He realized that monarchy was essential to peace, and that the price of freedom was violence and disorder. — Tacitus

Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety reforms the rich. — Tacitus

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. — Tacitus

Adversity deprives us of our judgment. — Tacitus

Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family — Tacitus

None mourn more ostentatiously than those who most rejoice at it [a death]. — 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

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

Modern houses are so small we've had to train our dog to wag its tail up and down and not sideways. — Tacitus

It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks. — Tacitus

Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished. — Tacitus

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty. — Tacitus

They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger ... they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor ... They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace. — Tacitus

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched. — Tacitus

[The Jews have] an attitude of hostility and hatred towards all others. — Tacitus

Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude. — Tacitus

Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions — Tacitus

Traitors are hated even by those whom they prefer. — Tacitus

[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty.
[Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.] — Tacitus

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. — Tacitus

Benefits are acceptable, while the receiver thinks he may return them; but once exceeding that, hatred is given instead of thanks.
[Lat., Beneficia usque eo laeta sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere pro gratia odium redditur.] — Tacitus

The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone. — Tacitus

Valor is the contempt of death and pain. — Tacitus

Bottling up his malice to be suppressed and brought out with increased violence. — Tacitus

Nothing mortal is so unstable and subject to change as power which has no foundation. — Tacitus

The views of the multitude are neither bad nor good.
[Lat., Neque mala, vel bona, quae vulgus putet.] — Tacitus

Things forbidden have a secret charm. — Tacitus

Whatever is unknown is magnified. — Tacitus

The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us,is seldom entered by a sail from our world. — Tacitus

There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor. — Tacitus

Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted. — Tacitus

Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man. — Tacitus

When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad. — Tacitus

War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party. — Tacitus

To be rich or well-born was a crime: men were prosecuted for holding or for refusing office: merit of any kind meant certain ruin. Nor were the Informers more hated for their crimes than for their prizes: some carried off a priesthood or the consulship as their spoil, others won offices and influence in the imperial household: the hatred and fear they inspired worked universal havoc. Slaves were bribed against their masters, freedmen against their patrons, and, if a man had no enemies, he was ruined by his friends. — Tacitus

Great empires are not maintained by timidity. — Tacitus

Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader. — Tacitus

No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations. — Tacitus

A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all. — Tacitus

Battles against Rome have been lost and won before, but hope was never abandoned, since we were always here in reserve. We, the choicest flower of Britain's manhood, were hidden away in her most secret places. Out of sight of subject shores, we kept even our eyes free from the defilement of tyranny. We, the most distant dwellers upon earth, the last of the free, have been shielded till today by our very remoteness and by the obscurity in which it has shrouded our name. Now, the farthest bounds of Britain lie open to our enemies; and what men know nothing about they always assume to be a valuable prize ...
A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery and rapine, they give the lying name of 'government'; they create a desolation and call it peace ... — Tacitus

In the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course. — Tacitus

There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it; the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune; the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian Guard. — Tacitus

A woman once fallen will shrink from no impropriety. — Tacitus

Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals. — Tacitus

You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter — Tacitus

Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so. — Tacitus

Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt — Tacitus

Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence. — Tacitus

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers. — Tacitus

Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies.
[Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.] — Tacitus

None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart.
[Lat., Nulla jactantius moerent quam qui maxime laetantur.] — Tacitus

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

It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of peace.
[Lat., Bellum magis desierat, quam pax coeperat.] — Tacitus

Even honor and virtue make enemies, condemning, as they do, their opposites by too close a contrast. — Tacitus

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

Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up. — Tacitus

Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor. — Tacitus

The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion. — Tacitus

Rumor is not always wrong — Tacitus

The grove is the centre of their whole religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient. — Tacitus

Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals. — Tacitus

Conspicuous by his absence. — Tacitus