Quote

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.

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
Motion
Feed
Flames
Requires
Brightens
Matter
Excite
Burns
Eloquence
Flame

More quotes by 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
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
Tacitus
Image
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.
Tacitus
Image
To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.
Tacitus
Image
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
Image
We extol ancient things, regardless of our own times. [Lat., Vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.]
Tacitus
Image
In all things there is a kind of law of cycles. [Lat., Rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis.]
Tacitus
Image
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
Tacitus
Image
We accomplish more by prudence than by force. [Lat., Plura consilio quam vi perficimus.]
Tacitus
Image
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.
Tacitus
Image
Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.
Tacitus
Image
Posterity gives to every man his true honor. [Lat., Suum cuique decus posteritas rependet.]
Tacitus
Image
Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader. [Lat., Ratio et consilium, propriae ducis artes.]
Tacitus
Image
In careless ignorance they think it civilization, when in reality it is a portion of their slavery...To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false pretenses, they call empire and where they make a desert, they call it peace.
Tacitus
Image
Power won by crime no one ever yet turned to a good purpose.
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
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
Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.
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
Cruelty is fed, not weakened, by tears.
Tacitus