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Quotes by Roman Authors
"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."
"To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination."
"Tell me who is able to keep his bed chaste, or which goddess is able to live with one god alone?"
"The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil."
"A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners."
"The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second, to know that which is true."
"To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself."
"When he, whoever of the gods it was, had thus arranged in order and resolved that chaotic mass, and reduced it, thus resolved, to cosmic parts, he first moulded the Earth into the form of a mighty ball so that it might be of like form on every side. And, that no region might be without its own forms of animate life, the stars and divine forms occupied the floor of heaven, the sea fell to the shining fishes for their home, Earth received the beasts, and the mobile air the birds. Then Man was born: though all other animals are prone, and fix their gaze upon the earth, he gave to Man an uplifted face and bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven."
"Answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witness against thee."
"The good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness."
"Idling of our elders is called business; the idling of boys, though quite like it, is punished by those same elders, and no one pities either the boys or the men."
"I probably felt more resentment for what I personally was to suffer than for the wrong they were doing to anyone and everyone. But at that time I was determined not to put up with badly behaved people more out of my own interest than because I wanted them to become good people."
"Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing."
"In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes."
"As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves."
"Advice to my younger self: 1 Start where you are with what you have. 2 Try not to hurt other people. 3 Take more chances. 4 If you fail, keep trying."
"Therefore let men withdraw themselves from errors; and laying aside corrupt superstitions, let them acknowledge their Father and Lord, whose excellence cannot be estimated, nor His greatness perceived, nor His beginning comprehended."
"What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye."
"Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."
"Whom they have injured they also hate."
"When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's [children's] minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind."
"Therefore God is one, if that which admits of so great power can be nothing else: and yet those who deem that there are many gods, say that they have divided their functions among themselves; but we will discuss all these matters at their proper places."
"Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake."
"The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery."
"We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed! What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired?"
"The intelligence of few perceives what has been carefully hidden in the recesses of the mind."
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
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