Tacitus, Annales 1.81
“Appealing words, but of a hollow or deceitful nature: the more they were covered with the appearance of freedom, the more they would burst into hostile servitude.”
speciosa verbis, re inania aut subdola, quantoque maiore libertatis imagine tegebantur, tanto eruptura ad infensius servitium.
Critias, Fr. 11.1-4
“A good character is stronger than the law;
no politician can ever twist him around
as he ruins the law by troubling it
this way and that with arguments.”
τρόπος δὲ χρηστὸς ἀσφαλέστερος νόμου·
τὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἂν διαστρέψαι ποτέ
ῥήτωρ δύναιτο, τὸν δ’ ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω
λόγοις ταράσσων πολλάκις λυμαίνεται
with an h/t to Pavel Gregoric for helping me fix the Critias
The good character is stronger than the law,
Because the former no orator is ever
able to twist, whereas the latter is often ruined
by stirring things with sweeping words.(I have not consulted any existent translations, but this is my best effort.)
— Pavel Gregoric (@pavelgregoric) December 10, 2017
