Tacitus

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

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

“Victor and vanquished never unite in substantial agreement.”

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

“We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.”

“A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.”

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

“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.”

“Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.”

“Custom adapts itself to expediency.”

“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.”

“A bad peace is worse than war.”

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

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

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

“Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.”

“Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.”

“Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.”

“It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.”

“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.”