Livy: Trending quotes (page 3)

“Before anything else [Numa] decided that he must instill in his subjects the fear of the gods, this being the most effective measure with an ignorant, and at that time uncultured, people.”

“I shall find antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absorbed in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world.”

“In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.”

“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”

“Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.”

“The best known evil is the most tolerable.”
Notissimum [...] malum maxime tolerabile

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

“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.”

“Greater is our terror of the unknown.”

“He will have true glory who despises it.”

“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.”

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

“We feel public misfortunes just so far as they affect our private circumstances, and nothing of this nature appeals more directly to us than the loss of money.”

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

“A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.”

“It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.”

“The more common report is that Remus mockingly jumped over the newly raised walls and was forthwith killed by the enraged Romulus, who exclaimed, "So shall it be henceforth with every one who leaps over my walls."”
Vulgatior fama est ludibrio fratris Remum novos transiluisse muros; inde ab irato Romulo, cum verbis quoque increpitans adiecisset 'sic deinde, quicumque alius transiliet moenia mea', interfectum.

“Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.”

“Men are only too clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.”