Quintilian Quotes

40 Sourced Quotes

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

Quintilian
Yet students must pronounce with diffidence and circumspection on the merits of such illustrious characters, lest, as is the case with many, they condemn what they do not understand.

Quintilian
Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

Quintilian
As birds are born to fly, horses to run, and wild beasts to show fierceness, so to us peculiarly belong activity and sagacity of understanding.

Quintilian
We give to necessity the praise of virtue.

Quintilian
Vain hopes are often like the dreams of those who wake.

Quintilian
Write quickly and you will never write well; write well, and you will soon write quickly.

Quintilian
God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architect of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.

Quintilian
A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

Quintilian
Accordingly, the first essential is that those feelings should prevail with us that we wish to prevail with the judge, and that we should be moved ourselves before we attempt to move others.

Quintilian
For it had been better for men to be born dumb and devoid of reason than to turn the gifts of providence to their mutual destruction.

Quintilian
To say the truth, whatever improvement private study may produce, there is still a peculiar advantage attendant on our appearance in the forum, where the light is different and there is an appearance of real responsibility quite different from the fictitious cases of the schools. If we estimate the two separately, practice without learning will be of more avail than learning without practice.

Quintilian
So much easier is it to do many things than to do one thing for a long time continuously.

Quintilian
To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

Quintilian
History is written for the purpose of narration and not in order to give proof.

Quintilian