The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.

Custom adapts itself to expediency.

Augustus gradually increased his powers, taking over those of the senate, the executives and the laws. The aristocracy received wealth and position in proportion to their willingness to accept slavery. The state had been transformed, and the old Roman character gone for ever. Equality among citizens was completely abandoned. All now waited on the imperial command.

They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.

When the State is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.

The wicked find it easier to coalesce for seditious purposes than for concord in peace.