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Necessity makes even the timid brave.

Sallust

The fame which is based on wealth or beauty is a frail and fleeting thing; but virtue shines for ages with undiminished lustre.
SALLUST

Age Fame Luster Virtual Wealth
Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
SALLUST

Decay Fall Life Philosophy Rise
Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.
SALLUST

Event Intellectual Past Pursuit
The very life which we enjoy is short.
SALLUST

Enjoyment Life One Liner Short
No grief reaches the dead.
SALLUST

Death Grief One Liner Reach
Of the cosmic Gods some make the world be, others animate it, others harmonize it, consisting as it does of different elements; the fourth class keep it when harmonized.
SALLUST

Animate Consist Cosmos God Harmony
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
SALLUST

Defeat Goodness Justice Man
Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.
SALLUST

Bad Measurement Origin
Kings are more prone to mistrust the good than the bad; and they are always afraid of the virtues of others.
SALLUST

Afraid Bad Goodness Trust Virtue
To like and dislike the same things that is indeed true friendship.
SALLUST

Bond Friendship True
Each man the architect of his own fate.
SALLUST

Architect Fate Himself Man
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.
SALLUST

Coward Difficult Easy Enough Hands Necessary War Willing
Get good counsel before you begin; and when you have decided, act promptly.
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Act Counsel Decision Goodness Prompt
The Romans assisted their allies and friends, and acquired friendships by giving rather than receiving kindness.
SALLUST

Assistance Friendship Kindness Receive Roman
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
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
Everything that rises sets, and everything that grows, grows old.
SALLUST

Growth Old Rise
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
Prosperity tries the souls even of the wise.
SALLUST

Prosperity Soul Try Wisdom
He that will be angry for anything will be angry for nothing.
SALLUST

Angry Deep Emotion Feeling Himself
For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.
SALLUST

Empire Greatness Harmony Small State
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.
SALLUST

Creator Fate Man Song True
The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.
SALLUST

Friendship Identity Nature
One can ever assume to be what he is not, and to conceal what he is.
SALLUST

Assume Conceal Himself
To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.
SALLUST

Deep Man Poor Power Seek
Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits.
SALLUST

Advice Ancestor Help Light Powerful
In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited.
SALLUST

Brave Coward Credit Time Victory

Necessity makes even the timid brave.

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Necessity makes even the timid brave.

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