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So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood and both are exaggerated by posterity.

Tacitus

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Tacitus
Annalist
Biographer
Historian
Jurist
Military Personnel
Philosopher
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Gallia Bracata
Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Gaius Cornelius Tacitus
P. Cornelius Tacitus
C. Cornelius Tacitus
Cornelius Tacitus
Turns
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Obscurity
Others
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Transactions

More quotes by Tacitus

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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.]
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Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.
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In the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course.
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Bodies are slow of growth, but are rapid in their dissolution. [Lat., Corpora lente augescent, cito extinguuntur.]
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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.
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Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.
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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.
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Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.
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Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
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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.
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Falsehood avails itself of haste and uncertainty.
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Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.
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If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticise.
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It is a characteristic of the human mind to hate the man one has injured.
Tacitus
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[That form of] eloquence, the foster-child of licence, which fools call liberty. [Lat., Eloquentia, alumna licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant.]
Tacitus
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Cassius and Brutus were the more distinguished for that very circumstance that their portraits were absent. [Lat., Praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non videbantur.]
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Auctor nominis eius Christus,Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum, supplicio affectus erat. Christ, the leader of the sect, had been put to death by the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.
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Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.
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All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.
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Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.
Tacitus