It is always easier to requite an injury than a service: gratitude is a burden, but revenge is found to pay.
— Tacitus
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.
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.
Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he never been emperor.
Things forbidden have a secret charm.
Abuse if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.
Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth; when perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed; nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.
A bad peace is even worse than war.
Victor and vanquished never unite in substantial agreement.
Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.
To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
When a woman has lost her chastity she will shrink from nothing.
It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.
In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.
Custom adapts itself to expediency.
Noble character is best appreciated in those ages in which it can most readily develop.
Greater things are believed of those who are absent.
Love of fame is the last thing even learned men can bear to be parted from.
A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.
Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
It is human nature to hate the man whom you have hurt.
All things atrocious and shameless flock from all parts to Rome.
Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
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.
Those in supreme power always suspect and hate their next heir.
A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.
We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.
When the state is most corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.
He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, Will never rise to fight again.
When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad.
It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.
