Top 15 Tacitus Quotes

cupido dominandi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est

nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa.

non enim ignavia magna imperia contineri

Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.

Habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum exemplum, quod contra singulos, utilitate publica rependitus.

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

He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising".

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

When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.

Punitis ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas.

Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit.

Neque femina amissa pudicitia alia abnuerit.

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.

Viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur.

For I deem it to be the chief function of history to rescue merit from oblivion, and to hold up before evil words and evil deeds the terror of the reprobation of posterity.