Top 180 Tacitus Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”

— Tacitus

52. “By general consent, he would have been capable of ruling, had he not ruled.”

— Tacitus

53. “People flatter us because they can depend upon our credulity.”

— Tacitus

54. “Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.”

— Tacitus

55. “The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.”

— Tacitus

56. “Nature gives liberty even to dumb animals.”

— Tacitus

57. “Christianity is a pestilent superstition.”

— Tacitus

58. “But the more I reflect on events recent and past, the more I am struck by the element of the absurd in everything humans do.”

— Tacitus

59. “An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.”

— Tacitus

60. “The majority merely disagreed with other people’s proposals, and, as so often happens in these disasters, the best course always seemed the one for which it was now too late.”

— Tacitus

61. “Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.”

— Tacitus

62. “Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.”

— Tacitus

63. “Whatever is unknown is magnified.”

— Tacitus

64. “The unknown always passes for the marvellous.”

— Tacitus

65. “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

66. “When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.”

— Tacitus

67. “When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.”

— Tacitus

68. “Forbidden things have a secret charm.”

— Tacitus

69. “Perdomita Britannia et statim omissa. Britain was conquered and immediately lost.”

— Tacitus

70. “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

71. “Greater things are believed of those who are absent.”

— Tacitus

72. “You might believe a good man easily, a great man with pleasure. -Bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter.”

— Tacitus

73. “Liberty is given by nature even to mute animals.”

— Tacitus

74. “No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.”

— Tacitus

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

— Tacitus

76. “Conspicuous by his absence.”

— Tacitus

77. “The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”

— Tacitus

78. “To ravage, to slaughter, to steal, this they give the false name of empire; and where they create a desert, they call it peace.”

— Tacitus

79. “Laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.”

— Tacitus

80. “Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude.”

— Tacitus

81. “Rumor is not always wrong.”

— Tacitus

82. “Reckless adventure is the fool’s hazard.”

— Tacitus

83. “Posterity will pay everyone their due.”

— Tacitus

84. “Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.”

— Tacitus

85. “Neglected, calumny soon expires, show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.”

— Tacitus

86. “One who is allowed to sin, sins less.”

— Tacitus

87. “All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.”

— Tacitus

88. “A man in power, once becoming obnoxious, his acts, good or bad, will work out his ruin.”

— Tacitus

89. “Style, like the human body, is specially beautiful when the veins are not prominent and the bones cannot be counted.”

— Tacitus

90. “All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.”

— Tacitus

91. “I concur in opinion with those who deem the Germans never to have intermarried with other nations; but to be a race, pure, unmixed, and stamped with a distinct character.”

— Tacitus

92. “Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.”

— Tacitus

93. “In stirring up tumult and strife, the worst men can do the most, but peace and quiet cannot be established without virtue.”

— Tacitus

94. “This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.”

— Tacitus

95. “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.”

— Tacitus

96. “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.”

— Tacitus

97. “Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.”

— Tacitus

98. “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

99. “The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state.”

— Tacitus

100. “A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it.”

— Tacitus