WednesdaySep 30, 2026
Quotes: 53419 Authors: 9969
The wolf attacks with his fang, the bull with his horn. Dente lupus, cornu taurus petit
Now we must drink. Nunc est bibendum
The things that please are those that are asked for again and again. Bis repetita placent
They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea. Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt
The irritable race of poets. Genus irritabile vatum
There is a middle ground in things. Est modus in rebus
The fellow is either mad or he is composing verses. Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit
The same man will be loved when he is dead. Extinctus amabitur idem
One must avoid that wicked temptress Laziness. Vitanda est improba siren desidia.
Punishment closely follows guilt as its companion. Culpam poena premit comes
Pale death knocks with impartial foot at poor men's hovels and king's palaces. Pallida Mors Pale Death
The covetous man is ever in want.
Whatever advice you give, be brief.
Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.
It is your business, when the wall next door catches fire.
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
Wars, the horror of mothers. Bella detesta matribus
To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and the beginning of wisdom is to have got rid of folly.
Joking aside, let us turn to serious matters. Amoto quaeramus seria ludo
It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
While we talk, hostile time flies away. Dum loquimur invida aetas fugerit.
What forbids a laughing man from telling the truth? Ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?
A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.
It is sweet to relax at the proper time. Dulce est desipere in loco
Splendidly false. Splendide mendax
He's happy who, far away from business, like the races of men of old, tills his ancestral fields with his own oxen, unbound by any interest to pay.
Who has courage to say no again and again to desires, to despise the objects of ambition, who is a whole in himself, smoothed and rounded.
Seize the day, put no trust in the morrow. Seize the day, trust as little as possible in tomorrow. Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero (Odes, I.xi.1)
To save a man's life against his will is the same as killing him.
He who feared he would not succeed sat still. Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet
In the presence of the people. Coram populo
In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war. In pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello.
Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own; He who secure within can say: Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze. Exegi monumentum aere perennius
Maecenas, born of monarch ancestors Maecenas atavis edite regibus
Unaffected by manners. Simplex munditiis
He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
He possesses dominion over himself, and is happy, who can every day say, 'I have lived.' Tomorrow the heavenly Father may either involve the world in dark clouds, or cheer it with clear sunshine; he will not, however, render ineffectual the things which have already taken place.
Keep quiet. Favete linguis
In the consulship of Plancus. Consule Planco
If you wish me to weep, you yourself must first feel grief. Si vis me flere, dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi
Golden mean. Auream mediocritatem
From the egg right to the apples. Ab ovo usque ad mala.
Alas, the fleeting years slip by. Eheu fugaces labuntur anni
You may see me, fat and shining, with well-cared-for hide, ... a hog from Epicurus's herd.
Limbs of a dismembered poet. Disiecti membra poetae
Don't despair. Nil desperandum
Not all of me will die. Non omnia moriar
Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.
Have the courage to be wise.
Remember to keep a clear head in difficult times. Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem
What are you laughing at? Just change the name and the joke's on you. Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur
Brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight. Vis consili expers mole ruit sua.
I strive to be brief, and become obscure.
Brave men were living before Agamemnon.
He who has begun his task has half done it; begin.
Anger is a short madness.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
As a true translator you will take care not to translate word for word. Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus interpres
It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.
There is a mean in all things; and, moreover, certain limits on either side of which right cannot be found.
Virtue consists in avoiding vice, and is the highest wisdom.
The more we deny ourselves, the more the gods supply our wants.
Poverty urges us to do and suffer anything that we may escape from it, and so leads us away from virtue.
Remember to preserve a calm soul amid difficulties.
Strength, wanting judgment and policy to rule, overturneth itself.
Suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life.
That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided.
The body oppressed by excesses, bears down the mind, and depresses to the earth any portion of the divine Spirit we had been endowed with.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.
The lofty pine is oftenest shaken by the winds; High towers fall with a heavier crash; And the lightning strikes the highest mountain.
The miser acquires, yet fears to use his gains.
The sorrowful dislike the gay, and the gay the sorrowful.
They change their sky, not their mind, who cross the sea. A busy idleness possesses us: we seek a happy life, with ships and carriages: the object of our search is present with us.
Nor has he spent his life badly who has passed it in privacy.
To know all things is not permitted.
Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it; A mistress, if thou knowest not.
Virtue knowing no base repulse, shines with untarnished honour; nor does she assume or resign her emblems of honor by the will of some popular breeze.
Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence: None knew, till guilt created fear, What darts or poisoned arrows were.
What can be found equal to modesty, uncorrupt faith, the sister of justice, and undisguised truth?
What does it avail you, if of many thorns only one be removed?
What has this unfeeling age of ours left untried, what wickedness has it shunned?
When discord dreadful bursts her brazen bars, And shatters locks to thunder forth her wars.
Who loves the golden mean is safe from the poverty of a tenement, is free from the envy of a palace.
Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.
Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities.
You are dealing with a work full of dangerous hazard, and you are venturing upon fires overlaid with treacherous ashes
You traverse the world in search of happiness, which is within the reach of every man. A contented mind confers it on all.
When worthy Homer nods, I am offended.
Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.
He despises what he sought; and he seeks that which he lately threw away.
The world flies and cannot be recalled.
I shall not altogether die.
No need to despair under Teucer's leadership and protection.
Pale Death, with impartial foot, strikes at poor men's hovels and the towers of kings.
A well-prepared mind hopes in adversity And fears in prosperity.
A wise God shrouds the future in obscure darkness.
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
Anger is momentary madness.
Avoid greatness; in a cottage there may be more real happiness than kings or their favorites enjoy.
Excellence when concealed, differs but little from buried worthlessness.
Fidelity is the sister of justice.
For a man learns more quickly and remembers more easily that which he laughed at, than that which he approves and than that which he approves and reveres.
Nothing is beautiful from every point of view.
Happy and thrice happy are they who enjoy an uninterrupted union, and whose love, unbroken by any complaints, shall not dissolve until the last day.
Poetry is like painting.
He is not poor who has the use of necessary things.
Humble things become the humble.
I am frightened at seeing all the footprints directed towards thy den, and none returning.
If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
In laboring to be concise, I become obscure.
Instruction enlarges the natural powers of the mind.
It's a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.
It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, so he be a man of merit.
Justice, though moving with tardy pace, has seldom failed to overtake the wicked in their flight.
Knowledge is the foundation and source of good writing.
Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.
Man is never watchful enough against dangers that threaten him every hour.
Glory drags all men along, low as well as high, Bound captive at the wheels of her glittering car.
I am not what I was when dear Cinara was my queen.
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