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
men desire liberty
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
passion men interest
No mortal man has ever served at the same time his passions and his best interests.
courage brave
Necessity makes even the timid brave.
honesty envy toil
They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it.
anger mind firsts
All those who offer an opinion on any doubtful point should first clear their minds of every sentiment of dislike, friendship, anger or pity.
intellectual fleeting wealth
The fame that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; intellectual superiority is a possession glorious and eternal.
responsibility fate men
Each man the architect of his own fate.
animal effort silence
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.
mind body
We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve.
balance-and-harmony decay harmony-in-music
Harmony makes small things grow; lack of it makes great things decay.
war easy difficult
It is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.
men evil soul
It is not only spirits who punish the evil, the soul brings itself to judgment: and also it is not right for those who endure for ever to attain everything in a short time: and also, there is need of human virtue. If punishment followed instantly upon sin, men would act justly from fear and have no virtue.
men soul body
If the transmigration of a soul takes place into a rational being, it simply becomes the soul of that body. But if the soul migrates into a brute beast, it follows the body outside, as a guardian spirit follows a man. For there could never be a rational soul in an irrational being.
art healing details
It is impossible that there should be so much providence in the last details, and none in the first principles. Then the arts of prophecy and of healing, which are part of the cosmos, come of the good providence of the Gods.