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Livy

Titus Livius known as Livy in English, wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding (traditionally dated to 753 BC) through the reign of Augustus.

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  • Aetolos Acarnanas Macedonas, eiusdem linguae homines, leues ad tempus ortae causae diiungunt coniunguntque: cum alienigenis, cum barbaris aeternum omnibus Graecis bellum est eritque; natura enim, quae perpetua est, non mutabilibus in diem causis hostes sunt...
    • Translation: The Aitolians, the Akarnanians, the Macedonians, men of the same speech, are united or disunited by trivial causes that arise from time to time; with aliens, with barbarians, all Greeks wage and will wage eternal war; for they are enemies by the will of nature, which is eternal, and not from reasons that change from day to day...
    • Liber XXXI, 29, 15

Histories

  • Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.
    • Praefatio, sec. 4

  • We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.
    • Praefatio, sec. 9

  • This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
    • Praefatio, sec. 10

  • Sic deinde, quicumque alius transiliet moenia mea!
    • Translation: And so be damned, whomever shall jump over my walls!
    • Book I, sec. 7
    • Spoken when Romulus slew his brother Remus for jumping over the walls of his encampment (soon to be Rome) in mockery.

  • The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
    • Book I, sec. 17

  • 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.
    • Book I, sec. 19

  • 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.
    • Book II, sec. 3

  • Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
    • Book II, sec. 39

  • Fame opportunely despised often comes back redoubled.
    • Book II, sec. 47

  • From abundance springs satiety.
    • Book III, sec. 1

  • The troubles which have come upon us always seem more serious than those which are only threatening.
    • Book III, sec. 39

  • Passions are generally roused from great conflict.
    • Book III, sec. 40

  • 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.
    • Book III, sec. 68

  • Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never.
    • Book IV, sec. 3

  • Potius sero quam numquam.
    • Translation: Better late than never.
    • Book IV, sec. 23

  • In valor you are their equals; in necessity, the last and strongest weapon, their superiors.
    • Book IV, sec. 28

  • There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.
    • Book IV, sec. 35

  • Favor and honor sometimes fall more fitly on those who do not desire them.
    • Book IV, sec. 57

  • Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.
    • Book V, sec. 4

  • There are laws for peace as well as war.
    • Book V, sec. 27

  • Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.
    • Book V, sec. 37

  • Vae victis!
    • Translation: Woe to the vanquished!
    • Variant: Woe to the conquered!
    • Book V, sec. 48

  • No one wants to be excelled by his relatives.
    • Book VI, sec. 34

  • The result showed that fortune helps the brave.
    • Book VIII, sec. 29

  • Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.
    • Book VIII, sec. 31

  • They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.
    • Book X, sec. 28

  • Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.
    • Book XXII, sec. 25

  • He would not anticipate those counsels which are rather bestowed by circumstances on men, than by men on circumstances.
    • Book XXII, sec. 38

  • He will have true glory who despises it.
    • Book XXII, sec. 39

  • Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.
    • Book XXII, sec. 39

  • All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident.
    • Book XXII, sec. 39

  • We do not learn this only from the event, which is the master of fools.
    • Book XXII, sec. 39

  • You know how to vanquish, Hannibal, but you do not know how to profit from victory.
    • Book XXII, sec. 51

  • They lived under a just and moderate government, and they admitted that one bond of their fidelity was that their rulers were the better men.
    • Book XXII, sec. 83

  • Notissimum [...] malum maxime tolerabile
    • Translation: The best known evil is the most tolerable.
    • Variant: Those ills are easiest to bear with which we are most familiar.
    • Book XXIII, sec. 3

  • The name of freedom regained is sweet to hear.
    • Book XXIV, sec. 21

  • It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.
    • Book XXIV, sec. 22

  • 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.
    • Book XXIV, sec. 25

  • Many things complicated by nature are restored by reason.
    • Book XXV, sec. 11

  • In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.
    • Book XXV, sec. 38

  • The populace is like the sea, motionless in itself, but stirred by every wind, even the lightest breeze.
    • Book XXVII, sec. 27

  • Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own.
    • Book XXVII, sec. 44

  • Men are only too clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 25

  • I approach these questions unwillingly, as it wounds, but no cure can be effected without touching upon and handling them.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 27

  • No crime can ever be defended on rational grounds.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 28

  • Temerity is not always successful.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 42

  • There is always more spirit in attack than in defense.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 44

  • Greater is our terror of the unknown.
    • Book XXVIII, sec. 44

  • Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.
    • Book XXX, sec. 21

  • Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.
    • Book XXX, sec. 30

  • 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.
    • Book XXX, sec. 30

  • It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.
    • Book XXX, sec. 30

  • It is when fortune is the most propitious that she is least to be trusted.
    • Book XXX, sec. 30

  • Good fortune and a good disposition are rarely given to the same man.
    • Book XXX, sec. 42

  • 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.
    • Book XXX, sec. 44

  • No law is sufficiently convenient to all.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 3

  • 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.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 3

  • The state is suffering from two opposite vices, avarice and luxury; two plagues which, in the past, have been the ruin of every great empire.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 4

  • It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 4

  • There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 4

  • The most honorable, as well as the safest course, is to rely entirely upon valour.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 14

  • There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.
    • Book XXXIV, sec. 16

  • He was always before men’s eyes; a course of action which, by increasing our familiarity with great men, diminishes our respect for them.
    • Book XXXV, sec. 10

  • Such impetuous schemes and boldness are at first sight alluring, but are difficult to handle, and in the result disastrous.
    • Book XXXV, sec. 32

  • The sun has not yet set for all time.
    • Book XXXIX, sec. 26

  • There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.
    • Book XL, sec. 46

  • A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.
    • Book XLIV, sec. 15

  • 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.
    • Book XLV, sec. 8
 
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