Quotes by Roman Authors - Page 4

The road is long if one proceeds by way of precepts but short and effectual if by way of personal example.
Seneca
A gentleman is mindful no less of the freedom of others than of his own dignity.
Livy
We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
Marcus Aurelius
What one has one ought to use and whatever he does he should do with all his might.
Cicero
There is a certain pleasure in weeping
Ovid
What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it.
Seneca
In times of stress be bold and valiant.
Horace
Maximus was my model for self-control, fixity of purpose, and cheerfulness under ill-health or other misfortunes. His character was an admirable combination of dignity and charm, and all the duties of his station were performed quietly and without fuss. He gave everyone the conviction that he spoke as he believed, and acted as he judged right. Bewilderment or timidity were unknown to him; he was never hasty, never dilatory; nothing found him at a loss. He indulged neither in despondency nor forced gaiety, nor had anger or jealousy any power over him. Kindliness, sympathy, and sincerity all contributed to give the impression of a rectitude that was innate rather than inculcated. Nobody was ever made by him to feel inferior, yet none could have presumed to challenge his pre-eminence. He was also the possessor of an agreeable sense of humour.
Marcus Aurelius
…because it is natural to touch more often the parts that hurt.
Seneca
Always bring money along with your complaints.
Plautus
To expel hunger and thirst there is no necessity of sitting in a palace and submitting to the supercilious brow and contumelious favour of the rich and great there is no necessity of sailing upon the deep or of following the camp What nature wants is every where to be found and attainable without much difficulty whereas require the sweat of the brow for these we are obliged to dress anew j compelled to grow old in the field and driven to foreign mores A sufficiency is always at hand
Seneca
Courage is what preserves our liberty safety life and our homes and parents our country and children. Courage comprises all things.
Plautus
How closely flattery resembles friendship! It not only apes friendship, but outdoes it, passing it in the race; with wide-open and indulgent ears it is welcomed and sinks to the depths of the heart, and it is pleasing precisely wherein it does harm.
Seneca
There is change in all things. You yourself are subject to continual change and some decay and this is common to the entire universe.
Marcus Aurelius
And besides, we lovers fear everything
Ovid
When you are aspiring to the highest place it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.
Cicero
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Reason can in general do more than blind force.
Gallus
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?
Marcus Aurelius
This, then, is true liberty: the joy that comes in doing what is right. At the same time, it is also devoted service in obedience to righteous precept.
Augustine of Hippo
Those who wish their virtue to be advertised are not striving for virtue but for renown. Are you not willing to be just without being renowned? Nay, indeed you must often be just and be at the same time disgraced. And then, if you are wise, let ill repute, well won, be a delight. Farewell.
Seneca
Nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet posse vivere.(No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.)
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.
Marcus Aurelius
Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.
Marcus Aurelius
For dismissed by You from Paradise, and having taken my journey into a far country, I cannot by myself return, unless Thou meetest the wanderer: for my return has throughout the whole tract of this world's time waited for Your mercy.
Augustine of Hippo
There is nothing so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it in expecting evil before it arrives?
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Fear is the proof of a degenerate mind.
Virgil
As the yellow gold is tried in fire so the faith of friendship must be seen in adversity.
Ovid
There is no one who would not rather appear to know than to be taught.
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus
It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians. . . and I am one of them.
Cyprian
There is something pleasurable in calm remembrance of a past sorrow.
Cicero
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.Be fair or foul, or rain or shinethe joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.Not Heaven itself, upon the past has power,but what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Horace
Were a man to order his life by the rules of true reason a frugal substance joined to a contented mind is for him great riches.
Lucretius
To live each day as though one's last never flustered never apathetic never attitudinizing-here is perfection of character.
Marcus Aurelius
The authority of those who profess to teach is often a positive hindrance to those who desire to learn.
Cicero
The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
I held my heart back from positively accepting anything, since I was afraid of another fall, and in this condition of suspense I was being all the more killed.
Augustine of Hippo
Life is divided into three parts: what was, what is and what shall be. Of these three periods, the present is short, the future is doubtful and the past alone is certain.
Seneca
But nothing will help quite so much as just keeping quiet, talking with other people as little as possible, with yourself as much as possible. For conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor. Nobody will keep the things he hears to himself, and nobody will repeat just what he hears and no more. Neither will anyone who has failed to keep a story to himself keep the name of his informant to himself. Every person without exception has someone to whom he confides everything that is confided to himself. Even supposing he puts some guard in his garrulous tongue and is content with a single pair of ears, he will still be the creator of a host of later listeners – such is the way in which what was but a little while before a secret becomes common rumor.
Seneca
Live mindful of how brief your life is.
Horace
I see that you have come to the last stage of human life; you are close upon your hundreth year, or even beyond: come now, hold an audit of your life. Reckon how much of your time has been taken up by a money-lender, how much by a mistress, a patron, a client, quarreling with your wife, punishing your slaves, dashing about the city on your social obligations. Consider also the diseases which we have brought on ourselves, and the time too which has been unused. You will find that you have fewer years than you reckon. Call to mind when you ever had a fixed purpose; how few days have passed as you had planned; when you were ever at your own disposal; when your face wore its natural expression; when your mind was undisturbed; what work you have achieved in such a long life; how many have plundered your life when you were unaware of your losses; how much you have lost through groundless sorrow, foolish joy, greedy desire, the seductions of society; how little of your own was left to you. You will realize that you are dying prematurely.
Seneca
Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge Thou it, that Thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous; repair Thou it. It has that within which must offend Thine eyes; I confess and know it. But who shall cleanse it? or to whom should I cry, save Thee? Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults, and spare Thy servant from the power of the enemy. I believe, and therefore do I speak.
Augustine of Hippo
As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: "What is his point of reference here?" But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.
Marcus Aurelius
we deceive ourselves in thinking that death only follows life whereas it both goes before and will follow after it for where is the difference in not beginning or ceasing to exist the effect of both is not to be
Seneca
Courage leads starward fear toward death.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Do not disagree with each other, enrich the soldiers, despise everyone else.
Lucius Septimus Severus
People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas,at the long course of the rivers,at the vast compass of the ocean,at the circular motion of the stars,and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.
Augustine of Hippo
Honesty is admired, and starves.
Juvenal
All things of the body stream away like a river, all things of the mind are dreams and delusion; life is warfare, and a visit to a strange land; the only lasting fame is oblivion.
Marcus Aurelius
Every stage of life has its troubles and no man is content with his own age.
Ausonius
One should count each day a separate life.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
One who's our friend is fond of us one who's fond of us isn't necessarily our friend.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Mortal, what hast thou of such grave concernThat thou indulgest in too sickly plaints?Why this bemoaning and beweeping death?For if thy life aforetime and behindTo thee was grateful, and not all thy goodWas heaped as in sieve to flow awayAnd perish unavailingly, why not,Even like a banqueter, depart the hall,Laden with life?
Titus Lucretius Carus
It's a bad plan that can't be changed.
Publilius Syrus
There can be no centrein infinity.
Titus Lucretius Carus
We, peopling the void air, make gods to whom we impute the ills we ought to bear.
Titus Lucretius Carus
I regret often that I have spoken never that I have been silent.
Syrus
Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Seneca
A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca