Livy Quotes & Sayings

#1. Nothing hurts worse than the loss of money.

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#2. Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.

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#3. The sun has not yet set for all time.

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#4. Passions are generally roused from great conflict.

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#5. There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.

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#6. There are laws for peace as well as war.

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#7. Men's minds are too ready to excuse guilt in themselves.

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#8. Good fortune and a good disposition are rarely given to the same man.

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#9. Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.

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#10. No crime can ever be defended on rational grounds.

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#11. Greater is our terror of the unknown.

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#12. An honor prudently declined often returns with increased luster.

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#13. Men are least safe from what success induces them not to fear.

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#14. Fear looks always on the darker side...

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#15. Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits.

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#16. Wit is the flower of the imagination.

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#17. There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.

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#18. Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.

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#19. When Numa died, Rome by the twin disciplines of peace and war was as eminent for self-mastery as for military power.

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#20. Never is work without reward, or reward without work.

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#21. The best known evil is the most tolerable.

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#22. Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never.

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#23. Those ills are easiest to bear with which we are most familiar.

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#24. The less there is of fear, the less there is of danger.

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#25. Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every kind of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective

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#26. Men are only clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.

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#27. A person under the firm persuasion that he can command resources virtually has them.

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#28. Temerity is not always successful.

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#29. Nature has ordained that the man who is pleading his own cause before a large audience, will be more readily listened to than he who has no object in view other than the public benefit.

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#30. Haste is blind and improvident.

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#31. Men of outstanding ability are more likely to lack the power of controlling their own people than of defeating an enemy in battle.

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#32. All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident.

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#33. Valor is the soldier's adornment.

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#34. You know how to vanquish, Hannibal, but you do not know how to profit from victory.

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#35. Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.

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#36. In these latter years wealth has brought avarice in its train, and the unlimited command of pleasure has created in men a passion for ruining themselves and everything else through self-indulgence and licentiousness.

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#37. Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.

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#38. The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself - something that's in all of us, I think, a little piece of God just waiting to be discovered.

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#39. Events of great consequence often spring from trifling circumstances.

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#40. The result showed that fortune helps the brave.

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#41. They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.

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#42. Better and safer is an assured peace than a victory hoped for. The one is in your own power, the other is in the hands of the gods.

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#43. This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.

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#44. We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.

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#45. From abundance springs satiety.

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#46. Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.

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#47. Nothing stings us so bitterly as the loss of money

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#48. Adversity reminds men of religion.

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#49. Friends should be judged by their acts, not their words.

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#50. He is truly a man who will not permit himself to be unduly elated when fortune's breeze is favorable, or cast down when it is adverse.

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#51. [1.9]The Roman State had now become so strong that it was a match for any of its neighbours in war, but its greatness threatened to last for only one generation, since through the absence of women there was no hope of offspring, and there was no right of intermarriage with their neighbours.

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#52. The army from Asia introduced a foreign luxury to Rome; it was then the meals began to require more dishes and more expenditure ... the cook, who had up to that time been employed as a slave of low price, become dear: what had been nothing but a metier was elevated to an art.

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#53. A woman's mind is affected by the meanest gifts.

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#54. War is just to those for whom it is necessary, and arms are clear of impiety for those who have no hope left but in arms.

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#55. their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies.

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#56. No law is quite appropriate for all.

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#57. Potius sero quam nunquam.
Better late than never.

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#58. No law can possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be beneficial on the whole and to the majority.

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#59. Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.

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#60. War is just to those to whom war is necessary.

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#61. Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes.

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#62. Truth is often eclipsed but never extinguished.

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#63. Present sufferings seem far greater to men than those they merely dread.

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#64. In adversity assume the countenance of prosperity, and in prosperity moderate the temper and desires.

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#65. Bethink yourself not whence you sprang, but who you are.

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#66. The populace is like the sea motionless in itself, but stirred by every wind, even the lightest breeze.

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#67. Nothing is so uncertain or unpredictable as the feelings of a crowd.

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#68. Many things complicated by nature are restored by reason.

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#69. Envy, like flames, soars upwards.

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#70. No wickedness proceeds on any grounds of reason.

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#71. The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.

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#72. Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and good sense at the same time.

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#73. Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.

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#74. Dignity is a matter which concerns only mankind.

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#75. By flying, men often rush into the midst of calamities.

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#76. [Rhodian delegation:]
Every city contains wicked citizens from time to time and an ignorant populace all the time.

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#77. Once let good faith be abandoned, and all social existence would perish.

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#78. He creates one hundred senators, either because that number was sufficient, or because there were only one hundred who could name their fathers. They

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#79. There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.

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#80. The mind sins, not the body; if there is no intention, there is no blame.

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#81. A gentleman is mindful no less of the freedom of others than of his own dignity.

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#82. Necessity is the last and strongest weapon

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#83. Fame opportunely despised often comes back redoubled.

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#84. Envy is blind, and she has no other quality than that of detracting from virtue

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#85. There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.

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#86. Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.

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#87. Certain peace is better and safer than anticipated victory.

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#88. It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.

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#89. There is never any lack at Athens of tongues ready and willing to stir up the passions of the common people; this kind of oratory is nurtured by the applause of the mob in all free communities; but this is especially true of Athens, where eloquence has the greatest influence.

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#90. Friendships ought to be immortal, hostilities mortal.

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#91. Adversity makes men remember God.

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#92. Woe to the conquered.

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#93. The special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behavior set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to emulate, from it what to avoid, whether basely begun or basely concluded.

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