Tom Holland · 464 pages
Rating: (11.7K votes)
“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
Tom Holland
Born place: in near Oxford, The United Kingdom
Born date January 1, 1968
See more on GoodReads
“And as it grew up and began to enjoy itself
What would we do with an unpredictable,
Powerful, bounding fox?
That long-mouthed, flashing temperament?
That necessary nightly twenty miles
And that vast hunger for everything beyond us?
How would we cope with its cosmic derangements
Whenever we moved?
...If I had grasped that whatever comes with a fox
Is what tests a marriage and proves it a marriage--
I would not have failed the test.”
― Ted Hughes, quote from Birthday Letters
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”
― Herman Melville, quote from Moby-Dick
“Our cities have become unaffordable to our poorest families, and this problem is leaving a deep and jagged scar on our next generation.”
― Matthew Desmond, quote from Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
“7 We have •redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”
― quote from HCSB: Holman Christian Standard Bible
“One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people—I categorize them as life’s losers—who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.”
― Donald J. Trump, quote from Trump: The Art of the Deal
Alexander Hamilton
Born in Death
Olive's Ocean
Life's Golden Ticket...
The Man Who Fell in...
Through Gates of Spl...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.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
