A Quote by Ovid

Nations and empires flourish and decay, By turns command, and in their turns obey.

Ovid

Quote Topics

Command Decay Empires Flourish Nations Obey Turns

Quote Author

Ovid
Roman - Poet
43 BC - 17 AD

What people love about life is its miraculous beauty; what they hate about death is the loss and decay around it. Yet losing is not losing, and decay turns into beauty, as beauty turns back into decay. We are breathed in, breathed out. Therefore all you need is to understand the one breath that makes up the world.

Stephen Mitchell

Do not grieve. Misfortune will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past and cannot be prevented should not be grieved for... Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives - they grow everywhere.

Kent Nerburn

The wheel turns and turns and turns: it never stops and stands still.

Anita Desai

It isn't the kind of profession that you have that makes you flourish; it's what you are coming from, within, that makes you flourish. Then everything that you step into turns into your garden.

John de Ruiter

Every time I get happy the Nana-hex comes through. Birds turn into plumber's tools, a sonnet turns into a dirty joke, a wind turns into a tracheotomy, a boat turns into a corpse.

Anne Sexton

When an elder turns to face the dead, that means he turns away from facing the future and his own retirement in Phoenix, let's say. He turns and finds himself facing the children.

Robert Bly

When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?

Shel Silverstein

He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced.

Ursula K. Le Guin

A positive philosophy turns into a positive attitude, which turns into positive actions, which turns into positive results, which turns into a positive lifestyle. A positive life.

Jeff Olson

Naturally we all have an inclination to command, and a great aversion to obey; and yet it is certain that it is more for our good to obey than to command; hence perfect souls have always had a great affection for obedience, and have found all their joy and comfort in it.

Saint Francis de Sales

The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so.

Bertolt Brecht

I didn’t even cry, I was stunned. You know, and that’s just how fast life turns. It turns on a dime.

Sandra Lee

If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into increased aliveness, alertness, and creativity.