This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.
TACITUSThe wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
More Tacitus Quotes
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A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
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We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times. [Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.]
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The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
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Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals.
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All bodies are slow in growth but rapid in decay.
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Benefits received are a delight to us as long as we think we can requite them; when that possibility is far exceeded, they are repaid with hatred instead of gratitude.
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The sciences throw an inexpressible grace over our compositions, even where they are not immediately concerned; as their effects are discernible where we least expect to find them.
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He (Tiberius) was wont to mock at the arts of physicians, and at those who, after thirty years of age, needed counsel as to what was good or bad for their bodies.
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Even the bravest men are frightened by sudden terrors.
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Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.
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No hatred is so bitter as that of near relations.
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Secure against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods, they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them nothing remains even to be wished.
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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.
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In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.
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Posterity allows to every man his true value and proper honours.
TACITUS






