Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
The lust of dominion burns with a flame so fierce as to overpower all other affections of the human breast.
It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.
It was rather a cessation of war than a beginning of peace. [Lat., Bellum magis desierat, quam pax coeperat.]
A cowardly populace which will dare nothing beyond talk. [Lat., Vulgus ignavum et nihil ultra verba ausurum.]
You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter
Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]
In seasons of tumult and discord bad men have most power; mental and moral excellence require peace and quietness.
Bodies are slow of growth, but are rapid in their dissolution. [Lat., Corpora lente augescent, cito extinguuntur.]
It is of eloquence as of a flame; it requires matter to feed it, and motion to excite it; and it brightens as it burns.
Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.
We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.
In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters. [Lat., Modestiae fama neque summis mortalibus spernenda est.]
The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry. [Lat., Facetiarum apud praepotentes in longum memoria est.]
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.
Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good.
Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.
Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.
None grieve so ostentatiously as those who rejoice most in heart. [Lat., Nulla jactantius moerent quam qui maxime laetantur.]
All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.
It is found by experience that admirable laws and right precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.
Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils. [Lat., Potentiam cautis quam acribus consiliis tutius haberi.]
Rulers always hate and suspect the next in succession. [Lat., Suspectum semper invisumque dominantibus qui proximus destinaretur.]
Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose. [Lat., Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit.]
Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms, armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes
All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end.
Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.
Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.
The task of history is to hold out for reprobation every evil word and deed, and to hold out for praise every great and noble word and deed.
In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
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.
All inconsiderate enterprises are impetuous at first, but soon lanquish. [Lat., Omnia inconsulti impetus coepta, initiis valida, spatio languescunt.]
A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.
[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]
All those things that are now field to be of the greatest antiquity were at one time new; what we to-day hold up by example will rank hereafter as precedent.
Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end. [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]
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.
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.
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.
The word liberty has been falsely used by persons who, being degenerately profligate in private life, and mischievous in public, had no hope left but in fomenting discord.
The grove is the centre of their whole religion. It is regarded as the cradle of the race and the dwelling-place of the supreme god to whom all things are subject and obedient.
Yet the age was not so utterly destitute of virtues but that it produced some good examples. [Lat., Non tamen adeo virtutum sterile seculum, ut non et bona exempla prodiderit.]
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
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.
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.
The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.
Tacitus has written an entire work on the manners of the Germans. This work is short, but it comes from the pen of Tacitus, who was always concise, because he saw everything at a glance.