Tacitus Quotes

Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.

1041

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.

1701

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

3235

A bad peace is worse than war.

3689

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.

3128

Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

2908