Not by vows nor by womanish prayers is the help of the gods obtained; success comes through vigilance, energy, wise counsel.
SALLUSTBut at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with his life.
More Sallust Quotes
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No grief reaches the dead.
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There were few who preferred honor to money.
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The glory of riches and of beauty is frail and transitory; virtue remains bright and eternal.
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It is impossible that there should be so much providence in the last details, and none in the first principles. Then the arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the Gods.
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To have the same desires and the same aversion is assuredly a firm bond of friendship.
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Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
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In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.
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Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.
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It is always easy enough to take up arms, but very difficult to lay them down; the commencement and the termination of war are not necessarily in the same hands; even a coward may begin, but the end comes only when the victors are willing.
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Since we have received everything from the Gods, and it is right to pay the giver some tithe of his gifts, we pay such a tithe of possessions in votive offering, of bodies in gifts of (hair and) adornment, and of life in sacrifices.
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In my opinion it is less shameful for a king to be overcome by force of arms than by bribery.
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But the case has proved that to be true which Appius says in his songs, that each man is the maker of his own fate.
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Advise well before you begin, and when you have maturely considered, then act with promptitude.
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Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.
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Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own
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Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
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To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.
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For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.
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The fame which is based on wealth or beauty is a frail and fleeting thing; but virtue shines for ages with undiminished lustre.
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Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.
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Prosperity tries the souls even of the wise.
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No man underestimates the wrongs he suffers; many take them more seriously than is right.
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Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?
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For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief.
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But few prize honour more than money.
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Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.
SALLUST