“It is the usual though inequitable method of the world, to pronounce an action to be either right or wrong, as it is attended with good or ill success.”
Est omnino iniquum, sed usu receptum, quod honesta consilia vel turpia, prout male aut prospere cedunt, ita vel probantur vel reprehenduntur.
Letter 9, 7.
Letters, Book V
“Such are the vicissitudes of our mortal lot: misfortune is born of prosperity, and good fortune of ill-luck.”
Habet has vices conditio mortalium, ut adversa ex secundis, ex adversis secunda nascantur.
V.
Panegyricus
“He used to say that "no book was so bad but that some good might be got out of it."”
Dicere etiam solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte prodesset..
Letter 5, 10, referring to Pliny the Elder.
Letters, Book III