263 Quotes by Tacitus

Forbidden things have a secret charm.

Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family.

The majority merely disagreed with other people’s proposals, and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always seemed the one for which it was now too late.

Terror and dread alone are the weak bonds of attachment; which once broken, they who cease to fear will begin to hate.

It is human nature to hate the one whom you have hurt.

Who, to say nothing about the perils of an awful and unknown sea, would have left Asia or Africa or Italy to look for Germany?

At length they gradually deviated into a taste for those luxuries which stimulate to vice; porticos, and baths, and the elegancies of the table; and this, from their inexperience, they termed politeness, whilst, in reality, it constituted a part of their slavery.

He was a strange mixture of good and bad, of luxury and industry, courtesy and arrogance. In leisure he was self-indulgent, but full of vigour on service. His outward behaviour was praiseworthy, though ill was spoken of his private life.

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.