Top 721 Quotes & Sayings by Ovid - Page 9

Beneath the sun's rays our shadow is our comrade; When clouds obscure the sun our shadow flees. So Fortune's smiles the fickle crowd pursues, But swift is gone whenever she veils her face.

There is no pleasure pure and simple, and some care always comes to mar our joys.

Believe me, the gods spare the afflicted, and do not always oppress those who are unfortunate.

In your judgment virtue requires no reward, and is to be sought for itself, unaccompanied by external benefits. [Lat., Judice te mercede caret, per seque petenda est Externis virtus incomitata bonis.]

God himself favors the brave.

Beauty is a frail good.

Either attempt it not, or succeed.

Everyone is desirous of his own pursuits, and loves To spend his time in his accustomed art.

Anger assists hands however weak.

I attempt an arduous task but there is no worth in that which is not a difficult achievement

The need has gone; the memorial thereof remains.

By arts, sails, and oars, ships are rapidly moved; arts move the light chariot, and establish love. [Lat., Arte citae veloque rates remoque moventur; Arte levis currus, arte regendus Amor.]

Who would have known of Hector, if Troy had been happy? The road to valor is built by adversity.

Wine, not too much, inspires and make the mind,to the soft joys of Venus strong inclined,which, buried in excess, unapt to love,stupidly lies and knows not hom to move

Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination. [Lat., Factis ignoscite nostris Si scelus ingenio scitis abesse meo.]

If Jupiter hurled his thunderbolt as often as men sinned, he would soon be out of thunderbolts.

Indulgent gods, grant me to sin once with impunity. That is sufficient. Let a second offence bear its punishment.

It warms the blood, adds luster to the eyes, and wine and love have ever been allies.

Beauty, if you do not open your doors, takes age from lack of use.

Writings survive the years; it is by writings that you know Agamemnon, and those who fought for or against him. [Lat., Scripta ferunt annos; scriptis Agamemnona nosti, Et quisquis contra vel simul arma tulit.]

The mind conscious of innocence despises false reports: but we are a set always ready to believe a scandal.

Have consideration for wounded feelings.

Anger assists hands however weak. [Lat., Quamlibet infirmas adjuvat ira manus.]

It is lawful to be taught by an enemy. Fas est ab hoste doceri.

Suppressed pain chokes us; in our breasts It surges, adding ever to its strength.

If the subject's easy we may all be wise; What stands unfirm, the smallest force overthrows.

When worse may yet befall, there's room for prayer, But when our fortune's at its lowest ebb, We trample fear beneath our feet, and live Without a fear of evil yet to come.

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves achieved, we can scarcely call our own.

A bitter drug oft brings relief.

Rare is the virtue that's not ruled by Fortune, That stands unshaken even when Fortune flees.

Keep a mid course between two extremes.

Knowest thou not that kings have long hands? [Lat., An nescis longos regibus esse manus?]

Even pleasure cloys without variety.

Envy, the meanest of vices, creeps on the ground like a serpent.

Sleep, thou repose of all things; sleep, thou gentlest of the deities; thou peace of the mind, from which care flies; who doest soothe the hearts of men wearied with the toils of the day, and refittest them for labor.

Let love give way to business; give attention to business and you will be safe.

What follows I flee; what flees I ever pursue.

Habit had made the custom.

Gain, acquired by many agents, soon accumulates.

Treat a thousand dispositions in a thousand ways.

They come to see, they come that they themselves may be seen. [Lat., Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipse.]

Quarrels are the dowry which married folk bring one another.

In an easy cause any man may be eloquent.

She who resists as though she would not win, By her own treason falls an easy prey.

Tempus edax rerum. Time the devourer of everything.

I am an exile; but it is the fault that pains; The punishment is nought; that it is deserved Is all the pain.

It is something to hold the scepter with a firm hand. [Lat., Est aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu.]

Thou beginnest better than thou endest. The last is inferior to the first. [Lat., Coepisti melius quam desinis. Ultima primis cedunt.]

That you may please others you must be forgetful of yourself.

Hastiness is the beginning of wrath, and its end repentance.

There will grow from straws a mighty heap.

Agreeing to differ. [Lat., Discors concordia.]

There are a thousand forms of evil; there will be a thousand remedies.

Truly it is allowed us to weep: by weeping we disperse our wrath; and tears go through the heart, even like a stream. [Lat., Flere licet certe: flendo diffundimus iram: Perque sinum lacrimae, fluminis instar enim.]

Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water.

With wavering steps does fickle fortune stray, Nowhere she finds a firm and fixed abode; But now all smiles, and now again all frowns, She's constant only in inconstancy.

Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.

Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me, but things vary, and adopt a new form. The phrase being born is used for beginning to be something different from what one was before, while dying means ceasing to be the same. Though this thing may pass into that, and that into this, yet the sums of things remains unchanged.

Remove the temptation of idleness and Cupid's bow is useless.

The least strength suffices to break what is bruised.