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Quote by Sallust

“If fortune makes a wicked man prosperous and a good man poor, there is no need to wonder. For the wicked regard wealth as everything, the good as nothing. And the good fortune of the bad cannot take away their badness, while virtue alone will be enough for the good.”

Quote by Sallust

Author

Sallust, born in 86 BC and died in 35 BC, was a prominent Roman politician and historian. Known for his concise and forceful writing style, as well as his profound political insights, he was an important figure during the Roman Republic. more

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“The Gods being good and making all things, there is no positive evil, it only comes by absence of good; just as darkness itself does not exist, but only comes about by absence of light.”

Doe Light Evil Darkness All Things Be Good Absence

Author:Sallust

“The soul sins therefore because, while aiming at good, it makes mistakes about the good, because it is not primary essence. And we see many things done by the Gods to prevent it from making mistakes and to heal it when it has made them. Arts and sciences, curses and prayers, sacrifices and initiations, laws and constitutions, judgments and punishments, all came into existence for the sake of preventing souls from sinning; and when they are gone forth from the body, Gods and spirits of purification cleanse them of their sins.”

“Since we have received everything from the Gods, and it is right to pay the giver some tithe of his gifts, we pay such a tithe of possessions in votive offering, of bodies in gifts of (hair and) adornment, and of life in sacrifices.”

Body Pay Sacrifice Hair Possession Offering Giver Tithe Adornment

Author:Sallust

“Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?”

Ifs Elements Destroyed

Author:Sallust

“Again, if the world is destroyed, it must needs either be destroyed according to nature or against nature. Against nature is impossible, for that which is against nature is not stronger than nature. If according to nature, there must be another nature which changes the nature of the world: which does not appear.”

Ifs World Needs Doe Impossible Stronger Destroyed

Author:Sallust

“It is not unlikely, too, that the rejection of God is a kind of punishment: we may well believe that those who knew the Gods and neglected them in one life may in another life be deprived of the knowledge of them altogether. Also those who have worshipped their own kings as gods have deserved as their punishment to lose all knowledge of God.”

Believe Wells Kind May Life Is Loses Kings Punishment Rejection Unlikely Deprived Neglected Another Life Knowledge Of God

Author:Sallust

“It is not only spirits who punish the evil, the soul brings itself to judgment: and also it is not right for those who endure for ever to attain everything in a short time: and also, there is need of human virtue. If punishment followed instantly upon sin, men would act justly from fear and have no virtue.”

Ifs Men Needs Humans Soul Spirit Evil Sin Virtue Judgment Endure Punishment Short Time

Author:Sallust

“Souls are punished when they have gone forth from the body, some wandering among us, some going to hot or cold places of the earth, some harassed by spirits. Under all circumstances they suffer with the irrational part of their nature, with which they also sinned. For its sake there subsists that shadowy body which is seen about graves, especially the graves of evil livers.”

Soul Body Earth Spirit Suffering Evil Gone Cold Circumstances Hot Sake Graves Wander Irrational Liver

Author:Sallust

“If the transmigration of a soul takes place into a rational being, it simply becomes the soul of that body. But if the soul migrates into a brute beast, it follows the body outside, as a guardian spirit follows a man. For there could never be a rational soul in an irrational being.”

Ifs Men Soul Body Spirit Rational Beast Irrational Guardian Brutes Migrate

Author:Sallust

“Souls that have lived in virtue are in general happy, and when separated from the irrational part of their nature, and made clean from all matter, have communion with the gods and join them in the governing of the whole world. Yet even if none of this happiness fell to their lot, virtue itself, and the joy and glory of virtue, and the life that is subject to no grief and no master are enough to make happy those who have set themselves to live according to virtue and have achieved it.”

Ifs World Made Soul Matter Enough Whole Joy Grief Virtue Subjects Masters Glory Clean Whole World Irrational Communion Governing Make Happy

Author:Sallust