Ovid Quotes

All right, boy, skewer me. I've dropped my defenses,
I'm an easy victim. Why, by now
Your arrows practically know their own way to the target
And feel less at home in their quiver than in me.

Everyone wishes that the man whom he fears would perish.

When the heart is sick it cannot bear the slightest annoyance.

Tis you, alone, can save, or give my doom.

You will be melancholy, if you are solitary.

I intend to speak of metamorphoses.

Their useless torches on dry hedges throw,
That catch the flames, and kindle all the row;
So burns the God, consuming in desire,
And feeding in his breast a fruitless fire

Either do not attempt at all, or go through with it.

The more highminded a man is the more easily is his anger appeased.

If the subject's easy we may all be wise;
What stands unfirm, the smallest force overthrows.

The act is judged of by the event.

What follows I flee; what flees I ever pursue.

Tis not always in a physician's power to cure the sick; at times the disease is stronger than trained art.

He who can simulate sanity will be sane.

Not knowing what he sees, he adores the sight; That false face fools and fuels his delight

Love and dignity do not dwell together.

Pleasant words are the food of love.

The rose is often found near the nettle.

As God is propitiated by the blood of a hundred bulls, so also is he by the smallest offering of incense.
[Lat., Sed tamen ut fuso taurorum sanguine centum,
Sic capitur minimo thuris honore deux.]

He who says o'er much I love not is in love.

Nothing is stronger than habit.

Either you pursue or push, O Sisyphus, the stone destined to keep rolling.
[Lat., Aut petis aut urgues ruiturum, Sisyphe, saxum.]

The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture.

With wavering steps does fickle fortune stray,
Nowhere she finds a firm and fixed abode;
But now all smiles, and now again all frowns,
She's constant only in inconstancy.

The sick mind can not bear anything harsh.
[Lat., Mensque pati durum sustinet aegra nihil.]

Change is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast.
In the pool where you least expect it, will be a fish.

Nowadays nothing but money counts: a fortune brings honors, friendships; the poor man everywhere lies low.

It is expedient that there should be gods, and, since it is expedient, let us believe that gods exist.

Nothing is so high and above all danger that is not below and in the power of God.
[Lat., Nihil ita sublime est, supraque pericula tendit
Non sit ut inferius suppositumque deo.]

Rest strengthens the body, the mind too is thus supported; but unremitting toil destroys both.

We hate the hawk because he ever lives in battle.

156. By faithful study of the nobler arts, our nature's softened, and more gentle grows.

By looking at squinting people you learn to squint.

Even pleasure cloys without variety.

Envy aims very high.

It is the act of a coward to wish for death.

It's right to learn, even from the enemy.

The iron ring is worn out by constant use.
[Lat., Ferreus assiduo consumitur anulus usu.]

Death is not grievous to me, for I shall lay aside my pains by death.
[Lat., Nec mihi mors gravis est posituro morte dolores.]

This letter gives me a tongue; and were I not allowed to write, I should be dumb.
[Lat., Praebet mihi littera linguam:
Et, si non liceat scribere, mutus ero.]

Ah me! love can not be cured by herbs.
[Lat., Hei mihi! quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbis.]

For in this strange anatomy we wear, the head has greater powers than the hand; the spirit, heart, and mind are over all.

What ignorance there is in human minds.

I prate of ancient poets' monstrous lies,
Ne'er seen or now or then by human eyes.

Fair Flora! Now attend thy sportful feast,
Of which some days I with design have past;
A part in April and a part in May
Thou claim'st, and both command my tuneful lay;
And as the confines of two months are thine
To sing of both the double task be mine.

Love and dignity cannot share the same abode.

Grief brims itself and flows away in tears.

Heavens! what thick darkness pervades the minds of men.
[Lat., Pro superi! quantum mortalia pectora caecae,
Noctis habent.]

Sleep, nature's rest, divine tranquility, That brings peace to the mind ...

The first thing to get in your head is that every single
Girl can be caught - and that you'll catch her if
You set your toils right. Birds will sooner fall dumb in
Springtime,
Cicadas in summer, or a hunting-dog
Turn his back on a hare, than a lover's bland inducements
Can fail with a woman, Even one you suppose
Reluctant will want it.

The bold adventurer succeeds the best.

Sometimes tears carry the same weight as words.

for no god may undo what another god has done...

When a rose dies, a thorn is left behind.

Tempore difficiles veniunt ad aratra juvenci;
Tempore lenta pati frena docentur equi.
In time the unmanageable young oxen come to the plough; in time the horses are taught to endure the restraining bit.

The prayers of cowards fortune spurns.

Take away leisure and Cupid's bow is broken

O ye gods! what thick encircling darkness blinds the minds of men!

If you count the sunny and the cloudy days of the whole year, you will find that the sunshine predominates.

Fair peace becomes men; ferocious anger belongs to beasts.

As the hawk is wont to pursue the trembling doves.

Skilled in every trick, a worthy heir of his paternal craft, he would make black look like white, and white look black.
[Lat., Furtum ingeniosus ad omne,
Qui facere assueret, patriae non degener artis,
Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra.]

A woman is always buying something.

It is some alleviation to ills we cannot cure to speak of them.

It is a kingly act to help the fallen.

A broken fortune is like a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it has to sustain.

But now as Phoebus anointed Phaethon
With medicinal blocker
To protect him from the burning
And fixed the crown of rays on the boy's head
He saw the tragedy to come

And sighed: "At least, if you can,
Stick to these instructions, my son.
First: use the whip not at all, or lightly.
But rein the team hard. It is not easy.
Their whole inclination is to be gone.

Second: avoid careering
Over the whole five zones of heaven.
Keep to that broad highway that curves
Within three zones, temperate and tropic.
Avoid the poles, and their killing blizzards.

Keep to that highway, follow the wheel ruts.
Share your heat fairly
Between heaven and earth, not too low
And not crashing in among the stars. Too high,
You will set heaven aflame - and, too low, earth.

The middle way is best, and safest.
And do not veer too far to the right
Where your wheels might crush the Serpent, nor to the left
Where they might be shattered against the Altar.
Take a bearing between them.

Time, the devourer of all things.

Against the bold, daring is unsafe.

Nothing is more useful to man that those arts which have no utility.

A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.

Who gives to Aristaeus honey;
Or wine to Bacchus, or Triptolemus
Earth's fruits, or apples to Alcinous?

And now the measure of my song is done:
The work has reached its end; the book is mine,
None shall unwrite these words: nor angry Jove,
Nor war, nor fire, nor flood,
Nor venomous time that eats our lives away.
Then let that morning come, as come it will,
When this disguise I carry shall be no more,
And all the treacherous years of life undone,
And yet my name shall rise to heavenly music,
The deathless music of the circling stars.
As long as Rome is the Eternal City
These lines shall echo from the lips of men,
As long as poetry speaks truth on earth,
That immortality is mine to wear.

Bring a lawsuit against a man who can pay; the poor man's acts are not worth the expense

There is no pleasure pure and simple, and some care always
comes to mar our joys.

Make the workmanship surpass the materials.

I see and approve better things, but follow worse.

I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.

There is a deity within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated.

When a house is tottering to its fall,
The strain lies heaviest on the weakest part,
One tiny crack throughout the structure spreads,
And its own weight soon brings it toppling down.

One does not yearn for that which is easily acquired.

Even the gods are moved by the voice of entreaty.

Courage conquers all things:
it even gives strength to the body.

A pleasing face is no small advantage.

Ajax defending his honor when he fought against Troy along with Ulysses, who claimed his actions enabled the Greeks to be victorious. The chiefs side with Ulysses, and Ajax, having lost his honor as a warrior, draws his sword and proclaims:
But this at least is mine, or does Ulysses claim this also for himself? This I must employ against myself; and the sword which has often reeked with Phrygian blood will now reek with its masters, lest any man but Ajax ever conquer Ajax.

Time, motion and wine cause sleep.

Love is a driver, bitter and fierce if you fight and resist him,
Easy-going enough once you acknowledge his power.

When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing.

Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.

Heaven rewards the pious; those who cherish the gods
Themselves are cherished.

Love is a believing creature.

Nothing is swifter than our years.

Love is the force that leaves you colorless

Pursuits become habits.

The judge's duty is to inquire about the time, as well as the facts.

I hate a woman who offers herself because she ought to do so, and cold and dry thinks of her sewing when making love.

When I was from Cupid's passions free, my Muse was mute and wrote no elegy.

While I am speaking the opportunity is lost.

There is no such thing as pure, unalloyed pleasure; some bitter ever mingles with the sweet.

Time itself flows on with constant motion, just like a river: for no more than a river can the fleeting hour stand still. As wave is driven on by wave, and, itself pursued, pursues the one before, so the moments of time at once flee and follow, and are ever new.