Best 16 quotes of Suetonius on MyQuotes

Again, during a sacrifice, the augur Spurinna warned Caesar that the danger threatening him would not come later than the Ides of March.

A good shepherd shears his flock, not flays them. [Lat., Boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubere.]

At a banquet Caligula was suddenly seized with a fit of helpless laughter. The consuls reclining next to him asked if they might share in the imperial merriment. Caligula, wiping the tears from his eyes, managed to gasp, "You'll never guess! It suddenly occurred to me that I had only to give a single nod, and both your throats would be cut on the spot.

Few of Caesar's assassins outlived him by more than three years, or died in their beds.

General Quotations about Evenings Let us add this one more night to our lives.

He [Caesar Augustus] found a city built of brick; he left it built of marble. [Lat., Urbem lateritiam accepit, mamoream relinquit.]

I found Rome built of bricks; I leave her clothed in marble.

If you did not know at age five that the gods are made up beings and the myths made up stories, you are a fool.

Punishment [by Nero] was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.

Suetonius, in holding up a mirror to those Caesars of diverting legend, reflects not only them but ourselves: half-tamed creatures, whose great moral task is to hold in balance the angel and the monster within - for we are both, and to ignore this duality is to invite disaster.

The fox changes his skin but not his habits.

When I am dead let the earth be dissolved in fire.

Would that the Roman people had but one neck! [Lat., Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!]

About this time he had the sarcophagus and body of Alexander the Great brought forth from its shrine, and after gazing on it, showed his respect by placing upon it a golden crown and strewing it with flowers; and being then asked whether he wished to see the tomb of the Ptolemies as well, he replied, "My wish was to see a king, not corpses.

In einem freien Staat müssen Zunge und Meinung frei sein.

So much for the Emperor; the rest of this history must deal with the Monster. —IV:22