Ovid
Ovid (43 BC — AD 17 or 18), born Publius Ovidius Naso, was a Roman poet of the Augustan age. He is ranked among one of the three great poets of Latin Literature along with along with Virgil and Horace, who were also his freinds. He was born at Salmo, of equestrian rank, bred for the bar, and served the State in the department of law for a time, but threw it up for literature and a life of pleasure. For some time he became the favourite of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, but for some unknown reason fell under the displeasure of the latter, and was banished in his fiftieth year to Tomis to end his days among the swamps of Scythia, near the Black Sea. He was the author, among other works, of the "Amores," "Fasti," and the "Metamorphoses,". His most famous work is Metamorphosis, which is one of the most important sources of classical mythology.Wisdom & Quotes
- It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe there are.
- Ars Amatoria
- Nothing is more powerful than habit.
- Ars Amatoria
- Love is a kind of warfare.
- Ars Amatoria
- Men should not care too much for good looks; neglect is becoming.
- Ars Amatoria
- Let others praise ancient times. I am glad that I was born in these.
- Ars Amatoria
- Whether a pretty woman grants or withholds her favours, she always likes to be asked for them.
- Ars Amatoria
- Simplicity, most rare in our age.
- Ars Amatoria
- Jupiter from above laughs at lovers' perjuries.
– Ars Amatoria
- Rage is for beasts, but shining peace for man.
– Ars Amatoria
- We all conceal
A god within us, we all deal
With heaven direct, from whose high places we derive
The inspiration by which we live.
– Ars Amatoria
- Alas! How difficult it is not to betray guilt by our countenance.
- Metamorphoses
- You will go most safely in the middle.
- Metamorphoses
- Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul.
- Metamorphoses
- It is right to learn even from an enemy.
– Metamorphoses
- I see better things, and approve, but I follow worse.
– Metamorphoses
- The gods have their own rules.
– Metamorphoses
- So art lies hid by its own artifice.
– Metamorphoses
- O mortals, from your fellows' blood abstain,
Nor taint your bodies with a food profane.
– Metamorphoses
- Thus all things are but altered, nothing dies.
– Metamorphoses
Time, the devourer of all things.
– Metamorphoses
- Time is the best medicine.
- Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love)
- Resist beginnings; the remedy comes too late when the disease has gained strength by long delays.
– Remedia Amoris
- Love yields to business. If you seek a way out of love, be busy; you'll be safe then.
– Remedia Amoris
- What one beholds of a woman is the least part of her.
- Love's Cure
- I can't live either without you or with you.
- Amores
- They bear punishment with equanimity who have earned it.
– Amores
- Love is a thing full of anxious fears.
– Heroides (The Heroines)
- There is a god within us.
– Fasti (The Festivals)
- Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.
– Tristia (Sorrows)
- So long as you are secure you will count many friends; if your life becomes clouded you will be alone.
– Tristia
- Ants never head for an empty granary:
no friends gather round when your wealth is gone.
– Tristia
- Well doth he live who lives retired, and keeps
His wants within the limit of his means.
– Tristia
- The greater a man is, the more can his wrath be appeased; a noble spirit is capable of kindly impulses. For the noble lion 'tis enough to have overthrown his enemy; the fight is at an end when his foe is fallen. But the wolf, the ignoble bears harry the dying and so with every beast of less nobility. At Troy what have we mightier than brave Achilles? But the tears of the aged Dardanian he could not endure.
– Tristia
- And it is a smaller thing to suffer the punishment than to have deserved it.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
- Shameful it is to say, yet the common herd, if only we admit the truth, value friendships by their profit.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
- 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.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
- Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
- Though strength be lacking, yet the will is to be praised.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
- Drops of water hollow out a stone.
– Epistulae ex Ponto
Tiberius