Life & Wisdom Quote by Ovid

Eloquence is cheap, Ovid insists, especially when the stakes are low. The line slices at a flattering cultural myth: that smooth language automatically signals depth, courage, or truth. For a poet famous for verbal sheen, it lands with a sly double edge. He’s both flexing his mastery and warning you not to be dazzled by it.

The key phrase is “an easy matter.” Ovid isn’t condemning rhetoric; he’s demoting it. Anyone can sound wise when the subject is safe, when the audience agrees, when nothing real has to be risked. Eloquence becomes a social costume, not a moral achievement. The subtext is almost prosecutorial: watch who suddenly finds their voice when the situation is convenient. Or, more uncomfortably, watch yourself.

Context matters because Ovid made a career out of elegance under pressure. In the Roman world of patronage and imperial scrutiny, language was power and liability. A poet could survive by making the dangerous feel decorative, the political feel personal, the sharp feel charming. Ovid’s later exile under Augustus, sparked by some mix of art and offense, only sharpens the irony: rhetorical brilliance can entertain and still fail to protect you.

So the intent isn’t to reject eloquence; it’s to relocate the real test. The hard thing isn’t speaking beautifully. It’s speaking beautifully when it costs you: when the facts are ugly, when the crowd is hostile, when clarity threatens someone important. Ovid’s line works because it punctures vanity with a compliment-shaped critique.