Tacitus Quotes

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay, falsehood by haste and uncertainty.

~ Tacitus

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.

~ Tacitus

A bad peace is worse than war.

~ Tacitus

Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.

~ Tacitus

They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

~ Tacitus

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

~ Tacitus

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.

~ Tacitus

To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.

~ Tacitus

The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

~ Tacitus

If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.

~ Tacitus

Style like the human body is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted.

~ Tacitus

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

~ Tacitus

A bad peace is even worse than war.

~ Tacitus

A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.

~ Tacitus

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

~ Tacitus

It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.

~ Tacitus

Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.

~ Tacitus

Be assured those will be thy worst enemies, not to whom thou hast done evil, but who have done evil to thee. And those will be thy best friends, not to whom thou hast done good, but who have done good to thee.

~ Tacitus

Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.

~ Tacitus

Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.

~ Tacitus

Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.

~ Tacitus

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.

~ Tacitus

When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.

~ Tacitus