The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.
TACITUSTo 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.
More Tacitus Quotes
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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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They terrify lest they should fear.
TACITUS -
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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When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
TACITUS -
[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]
TACITUS -
No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.
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Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader.
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Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.
TACITUS -
Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.
TACITUS -
Seek to make a person blush for their guilt rather than shed their blood.
TACITUS -
Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.
TACITUS -
The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.
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Custom adapts itself to expediency.
TACITUS -
In all things there is a kind of law of cycles. [Lat., Rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis.]
TACITUS -
Everything unknown is magnified. [Lat., Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.]
TACITUS