Quotes from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“It was an article of faith to the Romans that they were the most morally upright people in the world. How else was the size of their empire to be explained? Yet they also knew that the Republic's greatness carried its own risks. To abuse it would be to court divine anger. Hence the Roman's concern to refute all charges of bullying, and to insist they had won their empire purely in self-defense.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Gain cannot be made without loss to someone else.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Honour, in the Republic, had never been a goal in itself, only a means to an infinite end. And what was true of her citizens, naturally, was also true of Rome herself. For the generation that had lived through the civil wars, this was the consolation history gave them. Out of calamity could come greatness. Out of dispossession could come the renewal of a civilised order.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Just like any electorate, they delighted in making candidates for their favors sweat.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“This [for opposition leaders to claim royal lineage], in a world ruled by a republic, was what revolution had come to mean.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Enthusiasts for empire argued that Rome had a civilizing mission; that because her values and institutions were self-evidently superior to those of barbarians, she had a duty to propagate them; that only once the whole globe had been subjected to her rule could there be a universal peace.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“The Roman character had a strong streak of snobbery: effectively, citizens preferred to vote for families with strong brand recognition, electing son after father after grandfather to the great magistracies of state, indulging the nobility’s dynastic pretensions with a numbing regularity.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“The fish fanciers, sitting by their ponds and gazing into their depths, were tracing shadows darker than they understood.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“The news, when it leaked out, caused outrage and horror in Rome. The Republic was never so dangerous as when it believed that its security was at stake. The Romans rarely went to war, not even against the most negligible foe, without somehow first convincing themselves that their preemptive strikes were defensive in nature.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Of all Rome’s seven hills, however, the Palatine was the most exclusive by far.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“always been, and the safety of the Republic would be assured. This was a presumption buried deep in the soul of every Roman.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“More people worship the rising than the setting sun,”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Even when they have been felled, let alone when they are still standing and fighting, they never disgrace themselves,”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

“Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state. However great a citizen might become, however great he might wish to become, the truest greatness of all still belonged to the Roman Republic itself”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

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Popular quotes

“The anarchist, as the born foe of authority, will be destroyed by it after damaging it more or less. The anarch, on the other hand, has appropriated authority; he is sovereign. He therefore behaves as a neutral power vis-à-vis state and society. He may like, dislike, or be indifferent to whatever occurs in them. That is what determines his conduct; he invests no emotional values.”
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― Tosca Lee, quote from Havah: The Story of Eve

“He poked her shoulder. 'Ellie? Ellie?'
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'Darling, you were practically hugging a sheep.”
― Julia Quinn, quote from Brighter Than the Sun

“How had she ended up like this, imprisoned in the role of harridan? Once upon a time, her brash manner had been a mere posture - a convenient and amusing way for an insecure teenage bride, newly arrived in America, to disguise her crippling shyness. People had actually enjoyed her vituperation back then, encouraged it and celebrated it. She had carved out a minor distinction for herself as a 'character': the cute little English girl with the chutzpah and the longshoreman's mouth. 'Get Audrey in here,' they used to cry whenever someone was being an ass. 'Audrey'll take him down a peg or two.'

But somewhere along the way, when she hadn't been paying attention, her temper had ceased to be a beguiling party at that could be switched on and off at will. It had begun to express authentic resentments: boredom with motherhood, fury at her husband's philandering, despair at the pettiness of her domestic fate. She hadn't noticed the change at first. Like an old lady who persists in wearing the Jungle Red lipstick of her glory days, she had gone on for a long time, fondly believing that the stratagems of her youth were just as appealing as they had ever been. By the time she woke up and discovered that people had taken to making faces at her behind her back - that she was no longer a sexy young woman with a charmingly short fuse but a middle-aged termagant - it was too late. Her anger had become a part of her. It was a knotted thicket in her gut, too dense to be cut down and too deeply entrenched in the loamy soil of her disappointments to be uprooted.”
― Zoë Heller, quote from The Believers

“This time of year," she said, "people’s consciences gnaw at them. They give away truckloads of canned goods and quote Dickens and wring their hands over the ‘less fortunate.’" We boarded the Metro and took seats perpendicular to each other. "But God forbid anyone should address why they’re poor in the first place, or try to change the structures that keep them poor. Then the ‘less fortunate’ turn into ‘welfare queens’ and ‘derelicts.’ But if I were a lobbyist whoring on behalf of some transnational corporation, I’d never hear the word ‘derelict.’"

"So when it comes to taking care of poor people," I said, "if Mother Teresa is the Hallmark card, then you’re the electric bill.”
― Jeri Smith-Ready, quote from Requiem for the Devil

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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