Sallust Quotes

#1. Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.

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#2. The Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.

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#3. Necessity makes even the timid brave.

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#4. Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.

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#5. Most honorable are services rendered to the State; even if they do not go beyond words, they are not to be despised.

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#6. Poor Britons, there is some good in them after all - they produced an oyster.

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#7. There were few who preferred honor to money.

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#8. The man who is roused neither by glory nor by danger it is in vain to exhort; terror closes the ears of the mind.
[Lat., Quem neque gloria neque pericula excitant, nequidquam hortere; timor animi auribus officit.]

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#9. Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay.

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#10. Fortune rules in all things, and advances and depresses things more out of her own will than right and justice.

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#11. It is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.

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#12. It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.

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#13. Greedy for the property of others, extravagant with his own

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#14. Before you act, consider; when you have considered, tis fully time to act.

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#15. Not by vows nor by womanish prayers is the help of the
gods obtained; success comes through vigilance, energy,
wise counsel.

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#16. That power of the Gods which orders for the good things which are not uniform, and which happen contrary to expectation, is commonly called Fortune, and it is for this reason that the Goddess is especially worshipped in public by cities; for every city consists of elements which are not uniform.

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#17. It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.

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#18. The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity.
[Lat., Majorum gloria posteris lumen est, neque bona neque mala in occulto patitur.]

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#19. But few prize honour more than money.

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#20. In my opinion, he only may be truly said to live and enjoy his being who is engaged in some laudable pursuit, and acquires a name by some illustrious action, or useful art.

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#21. A small state increases by concord; the greatest falls gradually to ruin by dissension.

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#22. Get good counsel before you begin; and when you have decided, act promptly.

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#23. To have the same likes and dislikes, therein consists the firmest bond of friendship.

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#24. To like and dislike the same things, this is what makes a solid friendship.

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#25. To have the same desires and the same aversion is assuredly a firm bond of friendship.

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#26. Those most moved to tears by every word of a preacher are generally weak and a rascal when the feelings evaporate.

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#27. Kings are more prone to mistrust the good than the bad; and they are always afraid of the virtues of others.

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#28. If the transmigration of a soul takes place into a rational being, it simply becomes the soul of that body. But if the soul migrates into a brute beast, it follows the body outside, as a guardian spirit follows a man. For there could never be a rational soul in an irrational being.

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#29. One can ever assume to be what he is not, and to conceal what he is.

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#30. The fact that the stars predict high or low rank for the father of the person whose horoscope is taken, teaches that they do not always make things happen but sometimes only indicate things. For how could things which preceded the birth depend upon the birth?

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#31. It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave.

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#32. Advise well before you begin, and when you have maturely considered, then act with promptitude.

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#33. The very life which we enjoy is short.
[Lat., Vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est.]

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#34. Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.

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#35. To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

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#36. Prosperity tries the souls even of the wise.

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#37. As the blessings of health and fortune have a beginning, so they must also find an end. Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.

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#38. All persons who are enthusiastic that they should transcend the other animals ought to strive with the utmost effort not to pass through a life of silence, like cattle, which nature has fashioned to be prone and obedient to their stomachs.

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#39. To hope for safety in flight, when you have turned away from the enemy the arms by which the body is defended, is indeed madness. In battle those who are most afraid are always in most danger; but courage is equivalent to rampart.

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#40. Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?

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#41. Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits.

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#42. No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.

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#43. All who consult on doubtful matters, should be void of hatred, friendship, anger, and pity.

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#44. No man underestimates the wrongs he suffers; many take them more seriously than is right.

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#45. Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.

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#46. It is always easy enough to take up arms, but very difficult to lay them down; the commencement and the termination of war are notnecessarily in the same hands; even a coward may begin, but the end comes only when the victors are willing.

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#47. The higher your station, the less your liberty.

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#48. Fame is the shadow of passion standing in the light

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#49. All men who would surpass the other animals should do their best not to pass through life silently like the beasts whom nature made prone, obedient to their bellies.

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#50. But at power or wealth, for the sake of which wars, and all kinds of strife, arise among mankind, we do not aim; we desire only our liberty, which no honorable man relinquishes but with his life.

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#51. Now these things never happened, but always are.

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#52. He only seems to me to live, and to make proper use of life, who sets himself some serious work to do, and seeks the credit of a task well and skillfully performed.

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#53. The soul is the captain and ruler of the life of morals.

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#54. The glory of riches and of beauty is frail and transitory; virtue remains bright and eternal.
[Lat., Divitarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis; virtus clara aeternaque habetur.]

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#55. The fame which is based on wealth or beauty is a frail and fleeting thing; but virtue shines for ages with undiminished lustre.

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#56. Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.

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#57. A good man prefers to suffer rather than overcome injustice with evil.

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#58. For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief.

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#59. The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

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#60. Small endeavours obtain strength by unity of action: the most powerful are broken down by discord.

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#61. In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.

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#62. The Romans assisted their allies and friends, and acquired friendships by giving rather than receiving kindness.
[Lat., Sociis atque amicis auxilia portabant Romani, magisque dandis quam accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant.]

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#63. Everything that rises sets, and everything that grows, grows old.

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#64. No grief reaches the dead.

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#65. For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.

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#66. To desire the same things and to reject the same things, constitutes true friendship.
[Lat., Idem velle et idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.]

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#67. By the wicked the good conduct of others is always dreaded.

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#68. In my opinion it is less shameful for a king to be overcome by force of arms than by bribery.

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#69. Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.

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#70. Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.

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#71. The poorest of men are the most useful to those seeking power.

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#72. The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

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#73. Since we have received everything from the Gods, and it is right to pay the giver some tithe of his gifts, we pay such a tithe of possessions in votive offering, of bodies in gifts of (hair and) adornment, and of life in sacrifices.

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#74. Sovereignty is easily preserved by the very arts by which it was originally created. When, however, energy has given place to indifference, and temperance and justice to passion and arrogance, then as the morals change so changes fortune.

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#75. All those who offer an opinion on any doubtful point should first clear their minds of every sentiment of dislike, friendship, anger or pity.

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#76. Neither the army nor the treasury, but friends, are the true supports of the throne; for friends cannot be collected by force of arms, nor purchased with money; they are the offspring of kindness and sincerity.

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#77. A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.

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#78. If a man is ambitious for power, he can have no better supporters than the poor: They are not worried about their own possessions, since they have none, and whatever will put something in their pockets is right and proper in their eyes. (Jugurthine War 86.3)

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#79. Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.

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#80. The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.

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#81. When the prizes fall to the lot of the wicked, you will not find many who
are virtuous for virtue's sake.

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#82. If fortune makes a wicked man prosperous and a good man poor, there is no need to wonder. For the wicked regard wealth as everything, the good as nothing. And the good fortune of the bad cannot take away their badness, while virtue alone will be enough for the good.

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#83. By union the smallest states thrive. By discord the greatest are destroyed.

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#84. We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve.

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#85. But the case has proved that to be true which Appius says in his songs, that each man is the maker of his own fate.

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#86. The glory of wealth and of beauty is fleeting and frail; virtue is illustrious and everlasting.

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#87. Of the cosmic Gods some make the world be, others animate it, others harmonize it, consisting as it does of different elements; the fourth class keep it when harmonized.

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#88. They envy the distinction I have won; let them, therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.

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#89. He that will be angry for anything will be angry for nothing.

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#90. Only a few prefer liberty- the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.

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#91. In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.

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#92. Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.

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#93. In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited.

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#94. But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raised to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.
[Lat., Sed profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis, quam ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.]

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#95. It is sweet to surve one country by deeds, and it is not absurd to surve her by words.

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#96. Each man the architect of his own fate.

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#97. Do as much as possible, and talk of yourself as little as possible.

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