Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits.
SALLUSTAmong intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.
More Sallust Quotes
-
-
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 -
Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own
SALLUST -
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?
SALLUST -
It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.
SALLUST -
Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
SALLUST -
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
SALLUST -
No grief reaches the dead.
SALLUST -
To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.
SALLUST -
Poor Britons, there is some good in them after all – they produced an oyster.
SALLUST -
The poorest of men are the most useful to those seeking power.
SALLUST -
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 -
In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited.
SALLUST -
Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.
SALLUST -
To hope for safety in flight, when you have turned away from the enemy the arms by which the body is defended, is indeed madness. In battle those who are most afraid are always in most danger; but courage is equivalent to rampart.
SALLUST -
No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.
SALLUST -
In my opinion it is less shameful for a king to be overcome by force of arms than by bribery.
SALLUST -
Everything that rises sets, and everything that grows, grows old.
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 -
Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.
SALLUST -
Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.
SALLUST -
The Romans assisted their allies and friends, and acquired friendships by giving rather than receiving kindness.
SALLUST -
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.
SALLUST -
Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
SALLUST -
All men who would surpass the other animals should do their best not to pass through life silently like the beasts whom nature made prone, obedient to their bellies.
SALLUST -
All who consult on doubtful matters, should be void of hatred, friendship, anger, and pity.
SALLUST -
The very life which we enjoy is short.
SALLUST