"Human fate often looks black to Tacitus. So does human nature. Yet he is far from sceptical about the potentialities of the human spirit. Even in times of civil war and tyrannical government, he is able to point to human actions of extraordinary virtue, bravery, and pertinacity. Indeed he is a humanist, and one whose contribution to our western tradition of humanism has been immense and singularly inspiring."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Michael Grant, 'Introduction' to Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (1956), pp. 20-21
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured."
"On the whole, one would say that their strength is in their infantry, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably …"
"Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris."
"They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, was formerly …"
"Et maiores vestros et posteros cogitate."
"Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."
"The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or in…"
"Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset."
"Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis."
"Scutum reliquisse praecipuum flagitium, nec aut sacris adesse aut concilium inire ignominioso fas; multique superstit…"