Sallust
Sallust
Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust, was a Roman historian, politician, and novus homo from a provincial plebeian family. Sallust was born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines and was a popularis, an opponent of the old Roman aristocracy, throughout his career, and later a partisan of Julius Caesar. Sallust is the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Catiline's War, The Jugurthine War, and the Historiesare still extant. Sallust was primarily...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionHistorian
ambition men tongue
Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.
liars ambition cutting
It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.
gratitude ambition ties
Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
friendship true-friend desire
To desire the same things and to reject the same things, constitutes true friendship. [Lat., Idem velle et idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.]
wicked
By the wicked the good conduct of others is always dreaded.
desire few majority men satisfied
Few men desire liberty; the majority are satisfied with a just master.
glorious glory goes possession
The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.
man
Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought.
To like and dislike the same things, this is what makes a solid friendship.
man proverbs
Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
himself proper seeks seems serious sets task work
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.
grief make-happy joy
Souls that have lived in virtue are in general happy, and when separated from the irrational part of their nature, and made clean from all matter, have communion with the gods and join them in the governing of the whole world. Yet even if none of this happiness fell to their lot, virtue itself, and the joy and glory of virtue, and the life that is subject to no grief and no master are enough to make happy those who have set themselves to live according to virtue and have achieved it.
war easy difficult
It is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.
mean use conquer
It is better to use fair means and fail, than foul and conquer.