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By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.

Sallust

The Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.
SALLUST

Absence Darkness Existence God Goodness Light Positive
Not by vows nor by womanish prayers is the help of the gods obtained; success comes through vigilance, energy, wise counsel.
SALLUST

Counsel Energy God Help Prayer Promise Success Vow Wisdom
Those most moved to tears by every word of a preacher are generally weak and a rascal when the feelings evaporate.
SALLUST

Evaporate Feeling General Move Tears Weakness Word
The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.
SALLUST

Beautiful Excellence Mental Possession Rich
Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.
SALLUST

Community Discord Greatness Harmony Oneself Pieces Small
By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.
SALLUST

Destroy Greatness Small State Thrive
Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.
SALLUST

Event Intellectual Past Pursuit
The fame that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; intellectual superiority is a possession glorious and eternal.
SALLUST

Beautiful Fame Forever Glory Intellectual Possession Wealth
We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve.
SALLUST

Body Employment Mindset Rule Serve
When the prizes fall to the lot of the wicked, you will not find many who are virtuous for virtue’s sake.
SALLUST

Fall Finding Prize Virtue Yourself
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.
SALLUST

Dangerous Desire Easy Endurance Men Source Way
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
SALLUST

Desire Liberty Master Men
Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.
SALLUST

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

Ancestor Bad Glory Goodness Light Obscurity Quality
Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.
SALLUST

Depression Fortune Justice Rule Willing
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.
SALLUST

Body Gift God Pay Possession Received Sacrifice
But 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.
SALLUST

Desire Himself Kind Liberty Life Man Power War Wealth
Sovereignty is easily preserved by the very arts by which it was originally created. When, however, energy has given place to indifference, and temperance and justice to passion and arrogance, then as the morals change so changes fortune.
SALLUST

Arrogance Art Change Creation Easy Fortune Justice Original Place Preserve
To like and dislike the same things that is indeed true friendship.
SALLUST

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

Assurance Bury Fate Fortune Principle Raise Rule
In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.
SALLUST

Character Life Natural Practice Right Virtue
Before you act consider; when you have considered, tis fully time to act.
SALLUST

Act Action Consider Time Yourself
It is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.
SALLUST

Beginning Difficult Easy Oneself Stop
As the blessings of health and fortune have a beginning, so they must also find an end. Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
SALLUST

Beginning Blessing Decay Fortune Health
It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.
SALLUST

Better Conquer Failure Right Rule Win
Get good counsel before you begin; and when you have decided, act promptly.
SALLUST

Act Counsel Decision Goodness Prompt
There were few who preferred honor to money.
SALLUST

Honor Money Preference

By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.

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By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.

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