To rob, to ravage, to murder, in their imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have made the world a solitude, they call it peace.
TACITUSTo plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.
More Tacitus Quotes
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Nothing mortal is so unstable and subject to change as power which has no foundation.
TACITUS -
Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
TACITUS -
Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters. [Lat., Modestiae fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est.]
TACITUS -
The unknown always passes for the marvellous.
TACITUS -
Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]
TACITUS -
In all things there is a law of cycles.
TACITUS -
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.
TACITUS -
Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt
TACITUS -
A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
TACITUS -
He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.
TACITUS -
The love of fame is the last weakness which even the wise resign.
TACITUS -
The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
TACITUS -
To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.
TACITUS -
It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.
TACITUS -
Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
TACITUS