The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
TacitusRead
An eminent reputation is as dangerous as a bad one.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A high reputation can be as perilous as a negative one, both leading to potential pitfalls.
Tacitus suggests that having an eminent reputation brings its own set of challenges and dangers, sometimes making a person vulnerable to scrutiny and unrealistic expectations. Just as a bad reputation can lead to trust issues and isolation, a high reputation can create pressure to maintain that status and might engender jealousy or resentment from others.
Themes
ReputationDangerExpectationsScrutinyPressure
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speaking event, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of humility despite success.
More from Tacitus
All quotes βIn private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
TacitusRead
Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
TacitusRead
Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.
TacitusRead
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
TacitusRead
The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
TacitusRead
Similar quotes
If a book were written all in numbers, it would be true. It would be just. Nothing said in words ever came out quite even. Things in words got twisted and ran together, instead of staying straight and fitting together. But underneath the words, at the center, like the center of the Square, it all came out even. Everything could change, yet nothing would be lost. If you saw the numbers you could see that, the balance, the pattern. You saw the foundations of the world. And they were solid.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself-it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God.
Charles SpurgeonRead
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Carl SaganRead
All life stinks and you must embrace that with compassion.
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To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.
Frederick DouglassRead
God created hand, head, and heart; the hand for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism.
Abraham KuyperRead