Top 180 Tacitus Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “The lust of dominion burns with a flame so fierce as to overpower all other affections of the human breast.”

— Tacitus

152. “Other men have acquired fame by industry, but this man by indolence.”

— Tacitus

153. “There can never be a complete confidence in a power which is excessive.”

— Tacitus

154. “Then there is the usual scene when lovers are excited with each other, quarrels, entreaties, reproaches, and then fondling reconcilement.”

— Tacitus

155. “By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.”

— Tacitus

156. “Legions and fleets are not such sure bulwarks of imperial power as a numerous family.”

— Tacitus

157. “Even for learned men, love of fame is the last thing to be given up.”

— Tacitus

158. “Who, to say nothing about the perils of an awful and unknown sea, would have left Asia or Africa or Italy to look for Germany?”

— Tacitus

159. “When the State is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.”

— Tacitus

160. “None make a greater show of sorrow than those who are most delighted.”

— Tacitus

161. “The task of history is to hold out for reprobation every evil word and deed, and to hold out for praise every great and noble word and deed.”

— Tacitus

162. “War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.”

— Tacitus

163. “Tacitus has written an entire work on the manners of the Germans. This work is short, but it comes from the pen of Tacitus, who was always concise, because he saw everything at a glance.”

— Tacitus

164. “Eloquence wins its great and enduring fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents as from those of our friends.”

— Tacitus

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

— Tacitus

166. “Bottling up his malice to be suppressed and brought out with increased violence.”

— Tacitus

167. “They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia .”

— Tacitus

168. “Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man.”

— Tacitus

169. “Necessity reforms the poor, and satiety reforms the rich.”

— Tacitus

170. “Flattery labors under the odious charge of servility.”

— Tacitus

171. “It is more reverent to believe in the works of the Deity than to comprehend them.”

— Tacitus

172. “Kindness, so far as we can return it, is agreeable.”

— Tacitus

173. “In private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.”

— Tacitus

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

— Tacitus

175. “It is a part of the nature of man to resist compulsion.”

— Tacitus

176. “The derivation of German is Wehr mann, a warrior, or man of war.”

— Tacitus

177. “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

178. “He bore this calamity, not with the ostentatious firmness which many have affected, nor yet with the tears and lamentations of feminine sorrow; and war was one of the remedies of his grief.”

— Tacitus

179. “The name Cornelius was a common one among the Romans, so that from it we can draw no inference.”

— Tacitus

180. “There are odious virtues; such as inflexible severity, and an integrity that accepts of no favor.”

— Tacitus

181. “It is not becoming to grieve immoderately for the dead.”

— Tacitus

182. “Adversity deprives us of our judgment.”

— Tacitus

183. “The Agricola was published following the assassination of Domitian in AD 96, at a time when the turmoil of the regime change allowed a new-found freedom to publish such works.”

— Tacitus

184. “To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of “government;” they create a desolation and call it peace.”

— Tacitus

185. “This was a tainted, meanly obsequious age. The greatest figures had to protect their positions by subserviency; and, in addition to them, all ex-consuls, most ex-praetors, even many junior senators competed with each other’s offensively sycophantic proposals.”

— Tacitus

186. “For indolence itself acquires a charm; and sloth, however odious at first, becomes at length engaging.”

— Tacitus

187. “They lived in rare accord, maintained by mutual affection and unselfishness; in such a partnership, however, a good wife deserves more than half the praise, just as a bad one deserves more than half the blame.”

— Tacitus