1171 Quotes by Roman authors

Roman voices speak in a tempered register: terse, iron-boned, attentive to duty and the shifting weather of power. Their maxims weigh labor against leisure, glory against ruin, law against desire. They praise virtus and pietas, mistrust excess, and keep a wary eye on destiny’s ledger. Time is short, character is long, and the commonwealth outlives the self. Dry wit, soldier’s clarity, and a jurist’s balance meet in sayings forged for campaigns, courts, and forums, where honor is tested and speech must carry its own proof.

See the complete list of authors from Rome

"One globe seemed all too small for the youthful Alexander"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"It is difficult not to write satire"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"I wish it, I command it. Let my will take the place of a reason"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"A child is owed the greatest respect; if you have ever have something disgraceful in mind, don't ignore your son's tender years"

Juvenal, Poet

Juvenal

"Neither soldiers nor money can defend a king but only friends won by good deeds, merit, and honesty"

Sallust, Historian

Sallust

"We employ the mind to rule, the body to serve"

Sallust, Historian

Sallust

"A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means"

Sallust, Historian

Sallust

"The mind ought sometimes to be diverted that it may return to better thinking"

Phaedrus, Poet

Phaedrus

"The humble are in danger when those in power disagree"

Phaedrus, Poet

Phaedrus

"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander"

Marcus Terentius Varro, Author

Marcus Terentius Varro

"No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing"

Claudius, Leader

Claudius

"We find that the Romans owed the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training, exact observance of discipline in their camps, and unwearied cultivation of the other arts of war"

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Writer

"A handful of men, inured to war, proceed to certain victory, while on the contrary, numerous armies of raw and undisciplined troops are but multitudes of men dragged to the slaughter"

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Writer

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain"

Pliny the Elder, Author

"A man who lives everywhere lives nowhere"

Marcus Valerius Martial, Poet

Marcus Valerius Martial

"Valor is superior to number"

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Writer

"Glory paid to our ashes comes too late"

Marcus Valerius Martial, Poet

Marcus Valerius Martial

"Truth comes out in wine"

Pliny the Elder, Author

"If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it"

Marcus Valerius Martial, Poet

Marcus Valerius Martial

"Repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt"

Saint Aurelius Augustine, Theologian

"This world's a bubble"

Saint Aurelius Augustine, Theologian

"It becomes an emperor to die standing"

Titus Flavius Vespasian, Royalty

"Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies' resources, and minimized their own"

Titus Livius, Historian

"Architecture is a science arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning; by the help of which a judgment is formed of those works which are the result of other arts"

Marcus V. Pollio, Architect

"In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest"

Titus Livius, Historian

"All things will be clear and distinct to the man who does not hurry; haste is blind and improvident"

Titus Livius, Historian

"Not only the bull attacks his enemies with curved horn, but also the sheep, when harmed fights back"

Sextus Propertius, Poet

"For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set"

Quintilian, Educator

"He plants trees to benefit another generation"

Caecilius Statius, Poet

"If there is a God, whence proceed so many evils? If there is no God, whence cometh any good?"

Boethius, Philosopher

"Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law"

Boethius, Philosopher

"Fear created the first gods in the world"

Caecilius Statius, Poet

"It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort"

Quintilian, Educator

"Avoid any specific discussion of public policy at public meetings"

Quintus Tullius Cicero, Soldier

"If fortune favors you do not be elated; if she frowns do not despond"

Ausonius, Poet

Ausonius

"When their city was occupied by the Gauls, and the Romans, who were besieged in the Capitol, had made military engines from the hair of the women, they dedicated a temple to the Bald Venus"

Lactantius, Author

"The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life"

Lucan, Poet

"Here is he laid to whom for daring deed, nor friend nor foe could render worthy meed"

Quintus Ennius, Poet

Quintus Ennius

Page 11 of 30