Ovid Quotes

122 Sourced Quotes

Your lot is mortal: not mortal is what you desire.

Ovid
Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at peace.

Ovid
Of its own accord my song would come in the right rhythms, and what I was trying to say was poetry.

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

Ovid
They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen.

Ovid
Let who does not wish to be idle fall in love!

Ovid
Though the strength is lacking, yet the willingness is commendable.

Ovid
Happy the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying, once and for all.

Ovid
I see the better things, and approve; I follow the worse.

Ovid
Although two crimes, a song and a mistake, have done me in.

Ovid
'Tis hard, I admit, yet virtue aims at what is hard, and gratitude for such a service will be all the greater.

Ovid
Stop it at the start, it's late for medicine to be prepared when disease has grown strong through long delays.

Ovid
Love is a child and naked; he has years that know no meanness, and he has no clothes, so that he is open in his ways.

Ovid
Envy can scarcely hold back her tears, when she sees nothing to cry about.

Ovid
When all the other animals, downcast looked upon the earth, [Prometheus] gave a face raised on high to man, and commanded him to see the sky and raise his high eyes to the stars.

Ovid
Let others praise the ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.

Ovid
Hence come the hardness of our race and our endurance of toil; and we give proof from what origin we are sprung.

Ovid
It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe that there are.

Ovid
Nor can one easily find among many thousands a single man who considers virtue its own reward. The very glory of a good deed, if it lacks reward, affects them not; unrewarded uprightness brings them regret. Nothing but profit is prized.

Ovid
Love yields to business. If you seek a way out of love, be busy; you'll be safe then.

Ovid
No species remains constant: that great renovator of matter
Nature, endlessly fashions new forms from old: there's nothing in the whole universe that perishes, believe me; rather it renews and varies its substance. What we describe as birth is no more than incipient change from a prior state, while dying is merely to quit it. Though the parts may be transported hither and thither, the sum of all matter is constant.

Ovid
What lies hid is unknown, and there is no desire for the unknown.

Ovid
Perhaps too my name will be joined to theirs [the names of famous poets].

Ovid
Thus all things are but altered, nothing dies.

Ovid
If you want to be loved, be lovable.

Ovid