Quote

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.

Tacitus

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Tacitus
Annalist
Biographer
Historian
Jurist
Military Personnel
Philosopher
Poet
Politician
Gallia Bracata
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
P. Cornelius Tacitus
C. Cornelius Tacitus
Cornelius Tacitus
Regard
Function
Highest
Hold
Evil
Posterity
Words
Deeds
History
Terror
Action
Worthy

More quotes by Tacitus

Image
Flatterers are the worst kind of enemies. [Lat., Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantes.]
Tacitus
Image
All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.
Tacitus
Image
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.
Tacitus
Image
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.]
Tacitus
Image
Things forbidden have a secret charm.
Tacitus
Image
That cannot be safe which is not honourable.
Tacitus
Image
Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful outline.
Tacitus
Image
Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning and fall off toward the end. [Lat., Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.]
Tacitus
Image
They terrify lest they should fear.
Tacitus
Image
Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.
Tacitus
Image
There was more courage in bearing trouble than in escaping from it the brave and the energetic cling to hope, even in spite of fortune the cowardly and the indolent are hurried by their fears,' said Plotius Firmus, Roman Praetorian Guard.
Tacitus
Image
The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
Tacitus
Image
We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times. [Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.]
Tacitus
Image
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
Image
Even honor and virtue make enemies, condemning, as they do, their opposites by too close a contrast.
Tacitus
Image
Corruptisima republica plurimae leges.
Tacitus
Image
Rumor does not always err it sometimes even elects a man.
Tacitus
Image
[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]
Tacitus
Image
The images of twenty of the most illustrious families the Manlii, the Quinctii, and other names of equal splendour were carried before it [the bier of Junia]. Those of Brutus and Cassius were not displayed but for that very reason they shone with pre-eminent lustre.
Tacitus
Image
Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
Tacitus