Bellum Catilinae Quotes

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

“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

“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

“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

“To those who had easily endured toils, dangers, and doubtful and difficult circumstances, ease and wealth, the objects of desire to others, became a burden and a trouble. At first the love of money, and then that of power, began to prevail, and these became, as it were, the sources of every evil. For avarice subverted honesty, integrity, and other honorable principles, and, in their stead, inculcated pride, inhumanity, contempt of religion, and general venality. Ambition prompted many to become deceitful; to keep one thing concealed in the breast, and another ready on the tongue; to estimate friendships and enmities, not by their worth, but according to interest; and to carry rather a specious countenance than an honest heart. These vices at first advanced but slowly, and were sometimes restrained by correction; but afterward, when their infection had spread like a pestilence, the state was entirely changed, and the government, from being the most equitable and praiseworthy, became rapacious and insupportable.

(Chapter 10)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“By these two virtues, intrepidity in war, and equity in peace, they maintained themselves and their state. Of their exercise of which virtues, I consider these as the greatest proofs; that, in war, punishment was oftener inflicted on those who attacked an enemy contrary to orders, and who, when commanded to retreat, retired too slowly from the contest, than on those who had dared to desert their standards, or, when pressed by the enemy, to abandon their posts; and that, in peace, they governed more by conferring benefits than by exciting terror, and, when they received an injury, chose rather to pardon than to revenge it.

(Chapter 9)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“But, assuredly, Fortune rules in all things. She makes every thing famous or obscure rather from caprice than in conformity with truth. The exploits of the Athenians, as far as I can judge, were very great and glorious, something inferior to what fame has represented them. But because writers of great talent flourished there, the actions of the Athenians are celebrated over the world as the most splendid achievements. Thus, the merit of those who have acted is estimated at the highest point to which illustrious intellects could exalt it in their writings.

But among the Romans there was never any such abundance of writers; for, with them, the most able men were the most actively employed. No one exercised the mind independently of the body: every man of ability chose to act rather than narrate, and was more desirous that his own merits should be celebrated by others, than that he himself should record theirs.

(Chapter 8)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“His [Catiline’s] violent spirit was daily more and more hurried on by the diminution of his patrimony, and by his consciousness of guilt; both which evils he had increased by those practices which I have mentioned above. The corrupt morals of the state, too, which extravagance and selfishness, pernicious and contending vices, rendered thoroughly depraved, furnished him with additional incentives to action.

(Chapter 5)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“[I] n the midst of so great corruption, my tender age was insnared and infected by ambition; and, though I shrunk from the vicious principles of those around me, yet the same eagerness for honors, the same obloquy and jealousy, which disquieted others, disquieted myself.

(Chapter 3)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“But after Cyrus in Asia and the Lacedæmonians and Athenians in Greece, began to subjugate cities and nations, to deem the lust of dominion a reason for war, and to imagine the greatest glory to be in the most extensive empire, it was then at length discovered, by proof and experience, that mental power has the greatest effect in military operations. And, indeed, if the intellectual ability of kings and magistrates were exerted to the same degree in peace as in war, human affairs would be more orderly and settled, and you would not see governments shifted from hand to hand, and things universally changed and confused. For dominion is easily secured by those qualities by which it was at first obtained.

(Chapter 2)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“All our power is situate in the mind and in the body. Of the mind we rather employ the government; of the body, the service. The one is common to us with the gods; the other with the brutes. It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue glory by means of the intellect than of bodily strength, and, since the life which we enjoy is short, to make the remembrance of us as lasting as possible.

(Chapter 1)”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“Бо так уже водиться в усякій державі: незаможні заздрять чесним людям, нахваляють поганців, ненавидять старий лад, прагнуть до нового - все хочуть перемінити через відразу до власного становища; вони бездумно підтримують заколоти й сум'яття, бо ж легко зносити бідність, коли тобі нічого втрачати.”
― Ґай Саллюстій Крісп, Змова Катіліни

“imitari quam invidere bonis malebant.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“sed plerique mortales postrema meminêre”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

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

“ita in maximâ fortunâ minima licentia est;”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“magis quid se dignum foret, quam quid in illos iure fieri posset, quaerebant.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“ubi intenderis ingenium valet; si libido possidet, ea dominatur, animus nihil valet.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“consideres, quid tuae rationes postulent.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“namque, uti paucis verum absolvam, post illa tempora quicumque rem publicam agitavêre, honestis nominibus, alii sicuti populi iura defenderent, pars quo senatûs auctoritas maxima foret, bonum publicum simulantes pro suâ quisque potentiâ certabant.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“malis moribus, maxima spe”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae

“quoniam egestas facile habetur sine damno.”
― Sallust, Bellum Catilinae