Quotes from Sallust

In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.

No man underestimates the wrongs he suffers; many take them more seriously than is right.

For men who had easily endured hardship, danger and difficult uncertainty, leisure and riches, though in some ways desirable, proved burdensome and a source of grief.

There were few who preferred honor to money.

But few prize honour more than money.

It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave.

All men who would surpass the other animals should do their best not to pass through life silently like the beasts whom nature made prone, obedient to their bellies.

Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay.

The Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.

Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure.

Just to stir things up seemed a great reward in itself.

Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty.

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

A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.

To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

The fame that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; intellectual superiority is a possession glorious and eternal.

He only seems to me to live, and to make proper use of life, who sets himself some serious work to do, and seeks the credit of a task well and skillfully performed.

Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord.

Not by vows nor by womanish prayers is the help of the gods obtained; success comes through vigilance, energy, wise counsel.

The very life which we enjoy is short. [Lat., Vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est.]

The soul is the captain and ruler of the life of morals.

It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.

In my own case, who have spent my whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct from habitual has become natural.