Tacite citations

“Indeed, when a ruler once becomes unpopular, all his acts, be they good or bad, tell against him.”

“No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.”

“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

“When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.”

“It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”
Rara temporum felicitate, ubi sentire quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet.

“To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.”
Scutum reliquisse praecipuum flagitium, nec aut sacris adesse aut concilium inire ignominioso fas; multique superstites bellorum infamiam laqueo finierunt.

“Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims.”

“What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.”

“Good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.”
…ibi boni mores valent quam alibi bonae leges. [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus-germ-latin.html#19]

“There is a division of duties between the army and its generals. Eagerness for battle becomes the soldiers, but generals serve the cause by forethought, by counsel, by delay oftener than by temerity. As I promoted your victory to the utmost of my power by my sword and by my personal exertions, so now I must help you by prudence and by counsel, the qualities which belong peculiarly to a general.”
Divisa inter exercitum ducesque munia: militibus cupidinem pugnandi convenire, duces providendo, consultando, cunctatione saepius quam temeritate prodesse. ut pro virili portione armis ac manu victoriam iuverit, ratione et consilio, propriis ducis artibus, profuturum.

“He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, "with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising."”

“He had not even adopted Tiberius as his successor out of affection or any regard to the State, but, having thoroughly seen his arrogant and savage temper, he had sought glory for himself by a contrast of extreme wickedness.”
Ne Tiberium quidem caritate aut rei publicae cura successorem adscitum, sed quoniam adrogantiam saevitiamque eius introspexerit, comparatione deterrima sibi gloriam quaesivisse.

“Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.”

“Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death.”
Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis.

“However the marriage is there severe.”
Quanquam severa illic matrimonia

“They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, was formerly discovered on the same spot, and that certain monuments and tombs with Greek inscriptions, still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia.”

“The busts of twenty most illustrious families were borne in the procession, with the names of Manlius, Quinctius, and others of equal rank. But Cassius and Brutus outshone them all, from the very fact that their likenesses were not to be seen.”
Viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur.

“The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For in former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us, is seldom entered by a sail from our world.”

“The gods are on the side of the stronger.”
Deos fortioribus adesse.

“No honour was left for the gods, when Augustus chose to be himself worshipped with temples and statues, like those of the deities, and with flamens and priests.”
Nihil deorum honoribus relictum, cum se templis et effigie numinum per flamines et sacerdotes coli vellet.

“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”
nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa.

“Think of your forefathers and posterity.”
Et maiores vestros et posteros cogitate.

“The soldiers have the plunder of a city that is stormed, the generals of one which capitulates.”
Expugnatae urbis praedam ad militem, deditae ad duces pertinere.

“Lust of absolute power is more burning than all the passions”
cupido dominandi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est

“So true is it that all transactions of preeminent importance are wrapt in doubt and obscurity; while some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood; and both are exaggerated by posterity.”

“Their shields are black, their bodies dyed. They choose dark nights for battle, and, by the dread and gloomy aspect of their death-like host, strike terror into the foe, who can never confront their strange and almost infernal appearance.”

“For I deem it to be the chief function of history to rescue merit from oblivion, and to hold up before evil words and evil deeds the terror of the reprobation of posterity.”

“Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.”
Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.

“All this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.”