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
grief
No grief reaches the dead.
mind body
We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve.
principles oblivion fortune
But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raised to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle. [Lat., Sed profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis, quam ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.]
friendship desire aversion
To have the same desires and the same aversion is assuredly a firm bond of friendship.
fleeting wealth virtue
The glory of wealth and of beauty is fleeting and frail; virtue is illustrious and everlasting.
brave victory boast
In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited.
liberty dignity higher
The higher your station, the less your liberty.
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.]
pride men animal
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.
order cities expectations
That power of the Gods which orders for the good things which are not uniform, and which happen contrary to expectation, is commonly called Fortune, and it is for this reason that the Goddess is especially worshipped in public by cities; for every city consists of elements which are not uniform.
fall decay increase
Everything rises but to fall, and increases but to decay.
states honorable despised
Most honorable are services rendered to the State; even if they do not go beyond words, they are not to be despised.
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.
man proverbs
Every man is the architect of his own fortune.