Sallust > Quotes

“They envy the distinction I have won; let them, therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.”
― Sallust

“Every man is the architect of his own fortune.”
― Sallust

“Now these things never happened, but always are.”
― Sallustius, Concerning the Gods and the Universe

“No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.”
― Sallust

“Only a few prefer liberty- the majority seek nothing more than fair masters.”
― Sallust

“If a man is ambitious for power, he can have no better supporters than the poor: They are not worried about their own possessions, since they have none, and whatever will put something in their pockets is right and proper in their eyes." (Jugurthine War 86.3)”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“The renown that riches and beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.”
― Sallust

“Men have no right to complain that they are naturally feeble and short-lived, or that it is chance and not merit that decides their destiny. . . . What guides and controls human life is man's soul. . . . If men pursued good things with the same ardour with which they seek what is unedifying and unprofitable--often, indeed, actually dangerous and pernicious--they would control events instead of being controlled by them, and would rise to such heights of greatness and glory that their mortality would put on immortality.

As man consists of body and soul, all our possessions and pursuits partake of the nature of one or the other. Thus personal beauty and great wealth, bodily strength, and all similar things, soon pass away; the noble achievements of the intellect are immortal like the soul itself. Physical advantages, and the material gifts of fortune, begin and end; all that comes into existence, perishes; all that grows, must one day decay. But the soul, incorruptible and eternal, is the ruler of mankind; it guides and controls everything, subject itself to no control. Wherefore we can but marvel the more at the unnatural conduct of those who abandon themselves to bodily pleasures and pass their time in riotous living and idleness, neglecting their intelligence--the best and noblest element in man's nature--and letting it become dull through lack of effort; and that, too, when the mind is capable of so many different accomplishments that can win the highest distinction.”
― Sallust

“Namque pauci libertatem, pars magna iustos dominos volunt.

(Few men desire freedom, the greater part desire just masters.)”
― Sallust, Catiline's War, The Jurgurthine War, Histories

“Among intellectual pursuits, one of the most useful is the recording of past events.”
― Gaius Sallustius Crispus

“Harmony makes small things grow. Lack of it makes big things decay.”
― Sallust

“The memory of what others have accomplished kindles in the breasts of noble men a flame that is not quenched until their own prowess has won similar glory and renown. In these degenerate days, however, one cannot find a man who does not seek to rival his ancestors in wealth and extravagance, instead of uprightness and industry.”
― Gaius Sallustius Crispus

“All persons who are enthusiastic that they should transcend the other animals ought to strive with the utmost effort not to pass through a life of silence, like cattle, which nature has fashioned to be prone and obedient to their stomachs.”
― Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Catiline's War, The Jurgurthine War, Histories

“omnia mala exempla ex rebus bonis orta sunt.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“In general, this is what destroys great states: one group wants to overcome the other in any possible way and then to take a bitter vengeance on the defeated.”
― Sallust, Catiline's War, The Jurgurthine War, Histories

“[T]he public interest, as is too frequently the case, was defeated by private influence.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“Седнал - той говори едно, а прав -друго.”
― Sallust

“And to me, assuredly, though by no means equal glory attends the narrator and the performer of illustrious deeds, it yet seems in the highest degeee difficult to write the history of great transactions; first, because deeds must be adequately represented by words; and next, because most readers consider that whatever errors you mention with censure, are mentioned through malevolence and envy; while, when you speak of the great virtue and glory of eminent men, every one hears with acquiescence only that which he himself thinks easy to be performed; all beyond his own conception he regards as fictitious and incredible.

(Chapter 3)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“Thus avarice, leagued with power, disturbed, violated, and wasted every thing, without moderation or restraint; disregarding alike reason and religion, and rushing headlong, as it were, to its own destruction. For whenever any arose among the nobility, who preferred true glory to unjust power, the state was immediately in a tumult, and civil discord spread with as much disturbance as attends a convulsion of the earth.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“LUCIUS CATILINE was a man of noble birth, and of eminent mental and personal endowments; but of a vicious and depraved disposition. His delight, from his youth, had been in civil commotions, bloodshed, robbery, and sedition; and in such scenes he had spent his early years. His constitution could endure hunger, want of sleep, and cold, to a degree surpassing belief. His mind was daring, subtle, and versatile, capable of pretending or dissembling whatever he wished. He was covetous of other men's property, and prodigal of his own. He had abundance of eloquence, though but little wisdom. His insatiable ambition was always pursuing objects extravagant, romantic, and unattainable.

(Chapter 5)

[L. Catilina, nobili genere natus, fuit magna vi et animi et corporis, sed ingenio malo pravoque. Huic ab adulescentia bella intestina, caedes, rapinae, discordia civilis grata fuere ibique iuventutem suam exercuit. Corpus patiens inediae, algoris, vigiliae supra quam quoiquam credibile est. Animus audax, subdolus, varius, quoius rei lubet simulator ac dissimulator, alieni appetens, sui profusus, ardens in cupiditatibus; satis eloquentiae, sapientiae parum. Vastus animus immoderata, incredibilia, nimis alta semper cupiebat.]”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“(Caesar:) But to different persons, Conscript Fathers, different degrees of license are allowed. If those who pass a life sunk in obscurity, commit any error, through excessive anger, few become aware of it, for their fame is as limited as their fortune; but of those who live invested with extensive power, and in an exalted station, the whole world knows the proceedings. Thus in the highest position there is the least liberty of action; and it becomes us to indulge neither partiality nor aversion, but least of all animosity; for what in others is called resentment, is in the powerful termed violence and cruelty.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“Vigilando, laborando y meditando todas las cosas prosperan”
― Salustio

“But many mortals, devoted to their stomachs and to sleep, have passed through life untaught and uncouth, like foreign travelers; and of course, contrary to nature, their bodies were a source of pleasure to them, their minds a burden. In the case of such people, I asses their life and death alike, since silence surrounds each. -p4”
― Sallust, Catiline's War, The Jurgurthine War, Histories

“The common people, meanwhile, who had at first, from a desire of change in the government, been too much inclined to war, having, on the discovery of the plot, altered their sentiments, began to execrate the projects of Catiline, to extol Cicero to the skies; and, as if rescued from slavery, to give proofs of joy and exultation. Other effects of war they expected as a gain rather than a loss; but the burning of the city they thought inhuman, outrageous, and fatal, especially to themselves, whose whole property consisted in their daily necessaries and the clothes which they wore.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“Even in agriculture, in navigation, and in architecture, whatever man performs owns the dominion of intellect. Yet many human beings, resigned to sensuality and indolence, uninstructed and unimproved, have passed through life like travelers in a strange country; to whom, certainly, contrary to the intention of nature, the body was a gratification, and the mind a burden.

(Chapter 2)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“Frequent mobs, seditions, and at last civil wars, became common, while a few leading men on whom the masses were dependent, affected supreme power under the seemly pretence of seeking the good of senate and people; citizens were judged good or bad, without reference to their loyalty to the republic (for all were equally corrupt); but the wealthy and dangerously powerful were esteemed good citizens, because they maintained the existing state of things.”
― Sallust

“He remembered that envy is the concomitant of glory, and thus, the more renowned he became, the greater was his caution and circumspection.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“quae apud alios iracundia dicitur, ea in imperio superbia atque crudelitas appellatur.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“(Cato:) The case is, assuredly, dangerous, but you do not fear it; yes, you fear it greatly, but you hesitate how to act, through weakness and want of spirit, waiting one for another, and trusting to the immortal gods, who have so often preserved your country in the greatest dangers. But the protection of the gods is not obtained by vows and effeminate supplications; it is by vigilance, activity, and prudent measures, that general welfare is secured. When you are once resigned to sloth and indolence, it is in vain that you implore the gods; for they are then indignant and threaten vengeance.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline

“Marius, when he found that the minds of the populace were excited, immediately freighted vessels with provisions, pay, arms, and other necessaries, and ordered Aulus Manlius, his lieutenant-general, to set sail with them. He himself, in the mean time, proceeded to enlist soldiers, not after the ancient method, or from the classes, but taking all that were willing to join him, and the greater part from the lowest ranks. Some said that this was done from a scarcity of better men, and others from the consul's desire to pay court to the poorer class, because it was by that order of men that he had been honored and promoted; and, indeed, to a man grasping at power, the most needy are the most serviceable, persons to whom their property (as they have none) is not an object of care, and to whom every thing lucrative appears honorable. Setting out, accordingly, for Africa, with a somewhat larger force than had been decreed, he arrived in a few days at Utica.”
― Sallust, The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline