Quotes by Roman Authors - Page 4

It takes all of our life to learn how to live, and – something that may surprise you more – it takes just as long to learn how to die.
Seneca
Everything that happens, happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.
Marcus Aurelius
f you wish to put off all worry, assume that what you fear may happen is certainly going to happen.
Seneca
Malice drinks one-half of its own poison.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
As wave is driven by wave And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead, So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows, Always, for ever and new. What was before Is left behind; what never was is now; And every passing moment is renewed.
Ovid
Wise men profit more by fools than fools by wise men.
Marcus Porcius Cato
If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
Seneca
I got nervous at bulls and eagles,Trying to figure what shape Zeus might take f
Ovid
A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.
Publilius Syrus
Give up your thirst for books, so that you do not die a grouch.
Marcus Aurelius
Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth.
Ptolemy
If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Pray as though everything depends on God. And work as if everything depends on you.
Augustine of Hippo
No one could ever meet death for his country without the hope of immortality.
Cicero
No one can be so welcome a guest that he will not annoy his host after three days.
Plautus
If you are distressed by anything external the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.(Pluck the day [for it is ripe], trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.)
Horace
Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.
Marcus Aurelius
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth and for the great benefits of our being our life health and reason we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.
Horace
For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Nobody is poor unless he stand in need of justice.
Lactantius
I know that these mental disturbances of mine are not dangerous and give no promise of a storm; to express what I complain of in apt metaphor, I am distressed, not by a tempest, but by sea-sickness.
Seneca
Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?
Marcus Aurelius
The universe is flux, life is opinion.
Marcus Aurelius
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
Marcus Aurelius
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
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
Seneca
Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing.
Augustine of Hippo
Ira furor brevis est: animum rege: qui nisi paret imperat.(Anger is a brief madness: govern your mind [temper], for unless it obeys it commands.)
Horace
For greed all nature is too little.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, "Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?" neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility. . . .
Marcus Aurelius
Often the contempt of vainglory becomes a source of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned when the contempt is something one is proud of.
Augustine of Hippo
The good things that belong to prosperity are to be wished but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
I am a man I count nothing human foreign to me.
Terence
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
Horace
What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing-to live in accord with his own nature.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
No one reaches a high position without daring.
Publilius Syrus
Many receive advice only the wise profit by it.
Syrus
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
Marcus Aurelius
Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.
Marcus Aurelius
Purity both of the body and the soul rests on the steadfastness of the will strengthened by God's grace, and cannot be forcibly taken from an unwilling person.
Augustine of Hippo
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.
Seneca
The signs of the old flame, I know them well.I pray that the earth gape deep enough to take me downor the almighty Father blast me with one bolt to the shades,the pale, glimmering shades in hell, the pit of night,before I dishonor you, my conscience, break your laws.
Virgil
Although the gods were in the distant skies,Pythagoras drew near them with his mind;what nature had denied to human sight,he saw with his intellect, his mental eye.When he, with reason and tenacious care,had probed all things, he taught-- to those who gatheredin silence and amazement-- what he'd learnedof the beginnings of the universe,of what caused things to happen, and what istheir nature: what god is, whence come the snows,what is the origin of lightning bolts--whether it is the thundering winds or Jovethat cleave the cloudbanks-- and what is the cause of earthquakes, and what laws control the courseof stars: in sum, whatever had been hid,Pythagoras revealed.
Ovid
I know the nature of women When you want to they don't want to And when you don't want to they desire exceedingly.
Terence
If you would wish another to keep your secret first keep it yourself.
Seneca
Failure changes for the better success for the worse.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Old age is by nature rather talkative.
Cicero
For I am aware what ability is requisite to persuade the proud how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter on this shifting scene.
Augustine of Hippo
Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.
Marcus Aurelius
He who decides a case without hearing the other side though he decide justly cannot be considered just.
Seneca
Facilis descensus Averno:Noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;Sed revocare gradium superasque evadere ad auras,Hoc opus, hic labor est.(The gates of Hell are open night and day;Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:But to return, and view the cheerful skies,In this task and mighty labor lies.)
Virgil
All this hurrying from place to place won’t bring you any relief, for you’re traveling in the company of your own emotions, followed by your troubles all the way.
Seneca
you shall be told what pleased me to-day in the writings ofHecato; it is these words: "What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." That wasindeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.
Seneca
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.
Juvenal
Vice can be learnt even without a teacher.
Seneca
Must this with farce and folly rack myhead unpunish'd ? that with sing-song,Whine me dead?
Juvenal
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it will be a fish.
Ovid
What need of prompt or hint when it is open to yourself to discern what needs to be done - and, if you can see your way, to follow it with kind but undeviating intent. If you cannot see the way, hold back and consult your best advisors. if some other factors obstruct this advice, proceed on your present resources, but with cautious deliberations, keeping always to what seems just. Justice is the best aim, as any failure is in fact a failure of justice.A man following reason in all things combines relaxation with initiative, spark with composure.
Marcus Aurelius