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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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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
Children
Foster
Eloquence
Fools
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Liberty
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Licence

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A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.
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Following Emporer Nero's command, Let the Christians be exterminated!: . . . they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.
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Things forbidden have a secret charm.
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Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.
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Bottling up his malice to be suppressed and brought out with increased violence.
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The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.
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In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.
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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.
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Adversity deprives us of our judgment.
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Kindness, so far as we can return it, is agreeable.
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Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.
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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.
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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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It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.
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