Ancient Author Quotes

Virgil

Ovid

Terence

Sophocles

Aristophanes

Aeschylus

Euripides

He plants trees to benefit another generation.

Caecilius Statius

Niobe would have been called most blessed of mothers,
had she not seemed so herself.

I Sing Of Arms And Of A Man: his fate
Had Made Him Fugitive: he was the first
to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
as Italy and the Lavinian shores
Across the lands and waters he was battered
beneath the violence of the high ones for
the savage Juno's unforgetting anger.

I am human: nothing human is alien to me.

In Latin: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.

Look how men live, always precariously balanced between good and bad fortune.

This tale is not true: you [Helen] did not even board the well-benched ships, and you did not go to the citadel of Troy.

From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.

To our own sorrows serious heed we give, But for another?s we soon cease to grieve.

A madman is running towards the east, the man who chases after him also running towards the east. They are similar in running towards the east, but different in why they run towards the east.

Let the person who wins be him who says what is most desirable for the city.

Some man of ages past
Observed their goings; and devised their titles,
Forming the constellations. For the name
Of each star singly none could tell or learn; —
So numerous are they everywhere, and many
Of the same size and color, as they roll.
Thus he bethought him to combine them so,
That, ranged in neighborhood, they might present
Images, — each taking his proper name,
And henceforth none rising to doubt or guess at.

Not in hewn stones, nor in well-fashioned beams,
Not in the noblest of the builder's dreams,
But in courageous men of purpose great,
There is the fortress, there the living State.

Alcaeus of Mytilene

It was divine nature which gave us the country, and man's skill that built the cities.

Marcus Terentius Varro

May I look on thee when my last hour comes; may I hold thy hand, as I sink, in my dying clasp.

No man takes with him to Hades all his exceeding wealth.

Theognis of Megara

For in pure maidens, knowing not the marriage-bed, the glance of the eyes sinks from shame.

Thus sees the clown, or thinks he can descry
The new moon breaking through a cloudy sky.

Apollonius of Rhodes

Some laws are not written, but are more decisive than any written law.

Seneca the Elder

Because those, who twit others with their faults, should look at home.

What life is there, what delight, without golden Aphrodite?

At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool.

Neither earth nor ocean produces a creature as savage and monstrous as woman.

To this point is my mind reduced by your fault, Lesbia, and has so ruined itself by its own devotion, that now it can neither wish you well though you should become the best of women, nor cease to love you though you do the worst that can be done.

Zeus, the father of the Olympic Gods, turned mid-day into night, hiding the light of the dazzling Sun; and sore fear came upon men.

It is a part of probability that many improbable things will happen.