Augustus Quotes
"If it is one's destiny to change the world, it is his necessity first to change himself."
"Judgement is easy. Knowledge, since it involves an act of the imagination on behalf of others and their situations in the world, is difficult."
"For contrary to what we may believe, erotic love is the most unselfish of all the varieties; it seeks to become one with another, and hence to escape the self."
"Your uncle left his affairs in a mess. I would advise you not to wait around in Rome until they're straightened out."
"I was with him at Actium, when the sword struck fire from metal, and the blood of soldiers was awash on deck."
"The poet is always surprised at where his poem has gone."
"In this early morning stillness, the events of the day seem far away and unreal."
"I have conquered the world, and none of it is secure."
"Your mother speaks to you from the love that is in her heart; I speak to you from my affection, too, but also from my practical knowledge of the world."
"I call you Caesar, for I know that he would have had you as his son."
"Liberty. I joined the cause of Brutus for a word; and I do not know what the word means."
"The state is very near to being bankrupt. Of the few taxes that Lepidus can collect, a trickle goes into the treasury."
"But he knew of their coming; and I have often tried to imagine his anger as he awaited them alone."
"It is easier to deal with a single strong monarch who feels some security in his (or her) position than with half a dozen weak ones who feel none."
"A man may live like a fool for a year, and become wise in a day."
"The bloodiest of the work seems to be in the hands of Antonius's soldiers."
"The crowd became very quiet; from the distance, I could hear the faint careless rumble of the city."
"We fought through the morning and through the afternoon, one line relieving another as it became exhausted."
"I have witnessed an event, the significance of which only you, the dearest of all my friends, will apprehend."
"I would not explain myself to the world, and I would not have the world understand me; I have become indifferent to us both."
"Thus, Revered Queen, if you wish to save even a remnant of this army, you must accede to your husband's request for supplies."
"I shall write these words for my sons and for their children, now and to come, so that for as long as this family endures it might know something of its place in the world."
"I have given to Rome a freedom that only I cannot enjoy."
"He would attempt to form a wedge so that he could break our line; we darted upon him and broke his formation, so that he had to fight singly."
"My dear Vergil, I cannot tell you how long the silence lasted; and I cannot tell you the source of that silence, whether it was shock or fear, or whether all had been entranced as if by a true Orphic lyre."
"The way to knowledge is a long journey, and the goal is distant; and one must visit many places along the way, if he is to know that goal when he arrives at it."
"For however long I may live in this body, which I have served with much care and art for so many years, that part of my life which matters is over."
"I remember my fear and disappointment; my father beside me, though he steadied me gently with his hand upon my shoulder, was a stranger."
"She was Queen of a great country. She loved her country as much as any Roman might love his; she gave her life so that she might not have to look upon its defeat."
"I have returned to that learning which I abandoned many years ago, and it is likely that I should not have done so had not I been condemned to this loneliness."
"She is at last, I believe, beginning to accustom herself to the notion that she may be both a woman and the daughter of an Emperor."
"I have been in all things obedient to your will. I have been your wife, and faithful to my duty."
"You must find a way to persuade your friend and master to force Julia to return to Rome."
"I could not persuade myself that your new laws will bring anything but grief to yourself and your country."
"In the world from which I came, all was power; and everything mattered. One even loved for power."
"In my life I could never understand my father not apprehending that joy of power by which I learned to live."
"I come to the races more nearly for the society than for the horses."
"One does not bet on the first race, if one is wise."
"My Muse is smaller and more trivial, I fear."
"It was like a dream that waited to be fulfilled."
"It's a most depressing commentary upon the course that our lives have taken us."
"It is remarkable to have grown so old that one must depend upon the work of others to search into one's own life."
"All these works seem to me now to have one thing in common: they are lies."
"I wonder, if he saw me, would he recognize what he has become?"
"No messenger will rush to me with news of a new crisis or a new conspiracy."
"I have outlived all my physicians; it is some comfort to me to know that I shall not outlive Philippus."
"The vision in my left eye is nearly gone; yet if I close it, I can see, to the east, the soft rise of the Italian coast."
"It is fortunate that youth never recognizes its ignorance."
"Any man who had sufficient money could raise an army, and thus augment that wealth."
"Do not mistake me. I have never had that sentimental and rhetorical love for the common people."
"Yet in the crudest of men flashes of tenderness and compassion."
"Though I probably could not have articulated it then, I knew that my destiny was simply this: to change the world."
"The soldier longs for peace, and in the security of peace hungers for the clash of sword."
"When I was young, I would have said that loneliness and secrecy were forced upon me."
"One does not deceive oneself about the consequences of one's acts."
"The man of age, if he plays his assigned role properly, must see life as a comedy."
"Contrary to the libels and rumors spread during the early days of my military life, I was not more cowardly than another."
"We tell ourselves that we have become a civilized race."
"I determined early, however, that it was disruptive of order for men to give honor to those gods who spring from the darkness of instinct."
"The oarsmen, who all day have been taking their leisure, look at me with a bored apprehension."
"Of all the curses of age, this sleeplessness which increasingly I must endure is the most troublesome."
"My only duties are to this letter that I write, to the great sea that so effortlessly supports our frail craft, and to the blue Italian sky."
"The soldier who has chosen war for his profession in the midst of battle longs for peace."
"I believed that there was no possibility of virtue without the idea of virtue."
"I have come to believe that in the life of every man, late or soon, there is a moment when he knows beyond whatever else he might understand, the terrifying fact that he is alone."