Top 25 Livy Quotes
The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself – something that’s in all of us, I think, a little piece of God just waiting to be discovered.
— Titus Livius
Certain peace is better and safer than anticipated victory.
— Titus Livius
They lived under a just and moderate government, and they admitted that one bond of their fidelity was that their rulers were the better men.
— Titus Livius
Fortune blinds men when she does not wish them to withstand the violence of her onslaughts.
— Titus Livius
Temerity is not always successful.
— Titus Livius
He was always before men’s eyes; a course of action which, by increasing our familiarity with great men, diminishes our respect for them.
— Titus Livius
Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong.
— Titus Livius
He is truly a man who will not permit himself to be unduly elated when fortune’s breeze is favourable, or cast down when it is adverse.
— Titus Livius
Luck is of little moment to the great general, for it is under the control of his intellect and his judgment.
— Titus Livius
It is easy at any moment to surrender a large fortune; to build one up is a difficult and an arduous task.
— Titus Livius
He will have true glory who despises it.
— Titus Livius
Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed.
— Titus Livius
No law can possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be beneficial on the whole and to the majority.
— Titus Livius
Luck rules every human endeavour, especially war.
— Titus Livius
Never is work without reward, or reward without work.
— Titus Livius
It is when fortune is the most propitious that she is least to be trusted.
— Titus Livius
From abundance springs satiety.
— Titus Livius
The best-known evil is the most tolerable.
— Titus Livius
There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.
— Titus Livius
In grave difficulties, and with little hope, the boldest measures are the safest.
— Titus Livius
A person under the firm persuasion that he can command resources virtually has them.
— Titus Livius
When Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the best mode of governing a conquered city, he replied only by beating down with his staff all the tallest poppies in his garden.
— Titus Livius
Wit is the flower of the imagination.
— Titus Livius
Men are seldom blessed with good fortune and good sense at the same time.
— Titus Livius
No man likes to be surpassed by those of his own level.
— Titus Livius
Livy or Titus Livius Quotes
This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.” – Titus Livius.
— Titus Livius
The sun has not yet set for all time.
— Titus Livius
All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident.
— Titus Livius
Resistance to criminal rashness comes better late than never.
— Titus Livius
Envy like fire always makes for the highest points.
— Titus Livius
The result showed that fortune helps the brave.
— Titus Livius
Many difficulties which nature throws in our way, may be smoothed away by the exercise of intelligence.
— Titus Livius
There is nothing man will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards.
— Titus Livius
Woe to the conquered.
— Titus Livius
There are laws for peace as well as war.
— Titus Livius
We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.
— Titus Livius
Indeed, that is the nature of crowds: the mob is either a humble slave or a cruel aster. As for the middle way of liberty, the mob can neither take it nor keep it with any respect for moderation or law.
— Titus Livius
Men of outstanding ability are more likely to lack the power of controlling their own people than of defeating an enemy in battle.
— Titus Livius
This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
— Titus Livius
When Numa died, Rome by the twin disciplines of peace and war was as eminent for self-mastery as for military power.
— Titus Livius
We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.
— Titus Livius
We can endure neither our vices nor their cure.
— Titus Livius
The Roman envoys replied that they would go where their own generals led them, not were bidden by their enemies.
— Titus Livius
[Law] admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits.
— Titus Livius
[Rhodian delegation:] Every city contains wicked citizens from time to time and an ignorant populace all the time.
— Titus Livius
The study of History is the best medicine for a sick mind.
— Titus Livius
Public misfortune…nothing of this nature appeals more directly to us than the loss of money.
— Titus Livius
Envy is blind. -Caeca invidia est.
— Titus Livius
Friends should be judged by their acts, not their words.
— Titus Livius
It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.
— Titus Livius
There is nothing that is more often clothed in an attractive garb than a false creed.
— Titus Livius
Men are only clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others.
— Titus Livius
The populace is like the sea motionless in itself…stirred by even the lightest breeze.
— Titus Livius
The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
— Titus Livius
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.
— Titus Livius
The mind sins, not the body; if there is no intention, there is no blame.
— Titus Livius
Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
— Titus Livius
It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.
— Titus Livius
Truth is often eclipsed but never extinguished.
— Titus Livius
There is an old saying which, from its truth, has become proverbial, that friendships should be immortal, enmities mortal.
— Titus Livius
Great contests generally excite great animosities.
— Titus Livius
Envy, like flames, soars upwards.
— Titus Livius
The army from Asia introduced a foreign luxury to Rome; it was then the meals began to require more dishes and more expenditure . . . the cook, who had up to that time been employed as a slave of low price, become dear: what had been nothing but a métier was elevated to an art.
— Titus Livius
There is always more spirit in attack than in defense.
— Titus Livius
They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.
— Titus Livius
It is better that a guilty man should not be brought to trial than that he should be acquitted.
— Titus Livius
Rome has grown since its humble beginnings that it is now overwhelmed by its own greatness.
— Titus Livius
I shall find antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absorbed in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world.
— Titus Livius
This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
— Titus Livius
The troubles which have come upon us always seem more serious than those which are only threatening.
— Titus Livius
Passions are generally roused from great conflict.
— Titus Livius
There are laws for peace as well as war.
— Titus Livius
We do not learn this only from the event, which is the master of fools.
— Titus Livius
In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.
— Titus Livius
The populace is… stirred by every wind, even the lightest breeze.
— Titus Livius
Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.
— Titus Livius
We feel public misfortunes just so far as they affect our private circumstances.
— Titus Livius
Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own.
— Titus Livius
The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.
— Titus Livius
Greater is our terror of the unknown.
— Titus Livius
Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.
— Titus Livius
Many things complicated by nature are restored by reason.
— Titus Livius
The state is suffering from two opposite vices, avarice and luxury; two plagues which, in the past, have been the ruin of every great empire.
— Titus Livius
Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.
— Titus Livius
In valour you are their equals; in necessity, the last and strongest weapon, their superiors.
— Titus Livius
Nature has ordained that the man who is pleading his own cause before a large audience, will be more readily listened to than he who has no object in view other than the public benefit.
— Titus Livius
Fame opportunely despised often comes back redoubled.
— Titus Livius
Toil and pleasure, in their natures opposite, are yet linked together in a kind of necessary connection.
— Titus Livius
Children form a bond of union than which the human heart finds none more enduring.
— Titus Livius
Being continually in peoples sight, by the satiety which it creates, diminishes the reverence felt for great characters.
— Titus Livius
Assume in adversity a countenance of prosperity, and in prosperity moderate thy temper.
— Titus Livius
There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.
— Titus Livius
Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.
— Titus Livius
False shame only is harmful.
— Titus Livius
Haste is blind and improvident.
— Titus Livius
I have often heard that the outstanding man is he who thinks deeply about a problem, and the next is he who listens carefully to advice.
— Titus Livius
Dignity is a matter which concerns only mankind.
— Titus Livius
Friendships ought to be immortal, hostilities mortal.
— Titus Livius
Persevere in virtue and diligence.
— Titus Livius
Short Biography of Titus Livius
Livy was a Roman historian, his full name is Titus Livius. He known as Titus Livius in English.
He wrote a history of Rome and the Roman people, titled Ab Urbe Condita, ”From the Founding of the City”, covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy’s own lifetime.
