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Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.

Sallust

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
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
In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.
SALLUST

Battle Brave Coward Defense Risk Run
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
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
Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own
SALLUST

Himself Own Property
All persons who are enthusiastic that they should transcend the other animals ought to strive with the utmost effort not to pass through a life of silence, like cattle, which nature has fashioned to be prone and obedient to their stomachs.
SALLUST

Animal Effort Nature Obedience Person Stomach Transcend
For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.
SALLUST

Empire Greatness Harmony Small State
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
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 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

Destroy Element Existence
To desire the same things and to reject the same things, constitutes true friendship.
SALLUST

Desire Friendship Reject
Necessity makes even the timid brave.
SALLUST

Brave Circumstance Coward Necessary
Most honorable are services rendered to the State; even if they do not go beyond words, they are not to be despised.
SALLUST

Beyond Despise Honor Service State Word
Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.
SALLUST

Bad Measurement Origin
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

Animal Best Life Man Obedience Stomach Through
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
The higher your station, the less your liberty.
SALLUST

High Liberty Station Yourself
The man who is roused neither by glory nor by danger it is in vain to exhort; terror closes the ears of the mind.
SALLUST

Dangerous Glory Man Mindset Terror
Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.
SALLUST

Event Intellectual Past Pursuit
By the wicked the good conduct of others is always dreaded.
SALLUST

Dread Goodness Wicked
Enough words, little wisdom.
SALLUST

Enough Wisdom Word
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
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
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.
SALLUST

Cosmos Detail God Healing Impossible Principle
The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.
SALLUST

Friendship Identity Nature

Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.

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Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.

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