Roman author quotes Quotes

“In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. The mind indeed, both when it exercises caution and when it is employed about inquiry, moves straight onward not the less, and to its object.”

“If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”

“Wisdom is not only to be acquired, but enjoyed.”

“The great theatre for virtue is conscience.”

“Your wisdom should be without pride.”

“I have lived long enough to satisfy both nature and glory.”

“She was a lovely blonde, with fine teeth. She had gold and pearls for her dowry; but her gold was on her head, and her pearls were in her mouth.”

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

“The most venerable, clearly understood, enlightened, and reliable constant in the world is not only that we want to be happy, but that we want only to be so. Our very nature requires it of us.”

“Human society, the world, and the whole of mankind is to be found in the alphabet.”

“When confronted by a hungry wolf, it is unwise to goad the beast, as Cato would have us do. But it is equally unwise to imagine the snarling animal a friend and offer your hand, as Pompey does." "Perhaps you would have us climb a tree!”

“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what's left and live it properly. What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness.”

“The office of liberality consisteth in giving with judgment.”

“Many men are deeply moved by the mere semblance of suffering in a woman; they take the look of pain for a sign of constancy or of love.”

“If those who are the enemies of innocent amusements had the direction of the world, they would take away the spring, and youth, the former from the year, the latter from human life.”

“Weeds are omnipresent; errors are to be found in the heart of the most lovable.”

“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.”

“I depart from life as from an inn, and not as from my home.[Lat., Ex vita discedo, tanquam ex hospitio, non tanquam ex domo.]”

“The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.”

“The rich's paradise was created by the poor's hell.”

“For true poetry, complete poetry, consists in the harmony of contraries. Hence, it is time to say aloud--and it is here above allthat exceptions prove the rule--that everything that exists in nature exists in art.”

“A poet who is a bad man is a degraded being, baser and more culpable than a bad man who is not a poet.”

“In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.”

“Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.”

“There is not a moment without some duty.”

“Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.”

“When the king asked him what he meant by infesting the sea, the pirate defiantly replied:The same as you do when you infest the whole world;but because I do it with a little ship I am called a robber,and because you do it with a great fleet, you are an emperor.”

“I know not any season of life that is past more agreeably than virtuous old age.”

“Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.”

“O heart! love is thy bane and thy antidote.”

“How high a price we pay for the burden of habit! I am fitted for life here where I do not want to be, I want to live there but am unfit for it, and on both counts I am miserable.”

“It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.”

“Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.”

“The beautiful is as useful as the useful." He added after a moment’s silence, "Perhaps more so.”

“By and by never comes.”

“No sensible man (among the many things that have been written on this kind) ever imputed inconsistency to another for changing his mind.[Lat., Nemo doctus unquam (multa autem de hoc genere scripta sunt) mutationem consili inconstantiam dixit esse.]”

“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul.”

“He was fond of books, for they are cool and sure friends”

“Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.”

“As the scale of the balance must give way to the weight that presses it down, so the mind must of necessity yield to demonstration.”

“One sometimes says: 'He killed himself because he was bored with life.' One ought rather to say: 'He killed himself because he was bored by lack of life.'”

“We must not say that every mistake is a foolish one.”

“Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself: Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?”

“There is a determined though unseen bravery that defends itself foot by foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessity and dishonesty. Noble and mysterious triumphs that no eye sees, and no fame rewards, and no flourish of triumph salutes. Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.”

“To live is to think.”

“The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it - either gratefully better than or bitterly worse than something else that you alone choose.”

“Even the ablest pilots are willing to receive advice from passengers in tempestuous weather.”

“You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you. Things can't shape our decisions by themselves.”

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.”

“Poverty is the mother of crime.”