Tacitus

Quotes

1. Translation: It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.

2. 

   No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood.

3. 

   No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.

4. 

   The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror, and after their death were written under the irritation of a recent hatred. Hence my purpose is to relate a few facts about Augustus - more particularly his last acts, then the reign of Tiberius, and all which follows, without either bitterness or partiality, from any motives to which I am far removed.

5. 

   The gods are on the side of the stronger.

6. 

   The soldiers have the plunder of a city that is stormed, the generals of one which capitulates.

7. 

   The busts of twenty most illustrious families were borne in the procession, with the names of Manlius, Quinctius, and others of equal rank. But Cassius and Brutus outshone them all, from the very fact that their likenesses were not to be seen.

8. 

   Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.

9. 

   He had talents equal to business, and aspired no higher.

10. 

    He possessed a peculiar talent of producing effect in whatever he said or did.

11. 

    So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.

12. 

    What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.