“Some urge me to write the events of my time, believing that I see them with a view less distorted by passion than another man’s, and from closer, because of the access that fortune has given me to the heads of different parties. What they forget is that even for all the glory of Sallust, I would not take the trouble, being a sworn enemy of obligation, assiduity, perseverance; and that there is nothing so contrary to my style as an extended narration. I cut myself off so often for lack of breath;”

I.21 “Of the power of the imagination” (pp. 91-92)

One of my favorites, for the reluctance to write personal/ contemporary history, for the assertion of laziness, for the dig at “extended narration” (as, presumably, opposed to essaying).