Virgil Quotations

It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.

Endure the present, and watch for better things.

Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you.

Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance.

As the twig is bent the tree inclines.

Love begets love, love knows no rules, this is same for all.

It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one's steps to the upper air - there's the rub, the task.

Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.

Hug the shore; let others try the deep.

But meanwhile time flies; it flies never to be regained.

From my example learn to be just, and not to despise the gods.

If one swain scorns you, you will soon find another.

He enters the port with a full sail.

What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?

The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts.

If ye despise the human race, and mortal arms, yet remember that there is a God who is mindful of right and wrong.

He like a rock in the sea unshaken stands his ground.

Confidence cannot find a place wherein to rest in safety.

Every man makes a god of his own desire

Who asks whether the enemy was defeated by strategy or valor?

Better times perhaps await us who are now wretched

What each man feared would happen to himself, did not trouble him when he saw that it would ruin another.

Go forth a conqueror and win great victories.

I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts.

Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things.

Perhaps the day may come when we shall remember these sufferings with joy.

Happy is he who can trace effects to their causes.

Cease to think that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayers.

The descent to the infernal regions is easy enough, but to retrace one's steps, and reach the air above, there's the rub.

O accursed hunger of gold, to what dost thou not compel human hearts!

Myself acquainted with misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate.

The only safety for the conquered is to expect no safety.

Let not our proposal be disregarded on the score of our youth.

Age carries all things away, even the mind.

Age steals away all things, even the mind.

In strife who inquires whether stratagem or courage was used?

Wherever the fates lead us let us follow.

One man excels in eloquence, another in arms.

Perhaps even these things, one day, will be pleasing to remember.

There should be no strife with the vanquished or the dead.

Yield not to calamity, but face her boldly.

They are able because they think they are able.

Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses

Even virtue is fairer when it appears in a beautiful person.

Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love.

I have lived, and I have run the course which fortune allotted me; and now my shade shall descend illustrious to the grave.

Our fate, whatever it is to be, will be overcome by patience under it.

Trust not too much to an enchanting face.

Perhaps the remembrance of these things will prove a source of future pleasure.

Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.

At last I know what love is really like.

Everyone is dragged on by their favorite pleasure.

They attack the one man with their hate and their shower of weapons. But he is like some rock which stretches into the vast sea and which, exposed to the fury of the winds and beaten against by the waves, endures all the violence.

Go on and increase in valor for this is the path to immortality.

If only Jupiter would restore me those bygone years.

What a lot of work it was to found the Roman race.

Is there so much anger in the minds of the gods?

Not being untutored in suffering, I learn to pity those in affliction

They can conquer who belive they can.

Look with favor upon a bold beginning.

Live on in your blessings, your destiny's been won. But ours calls us on from one ordeal to the next.

The noblest motive is the public good.

A shifty, fickle object is woman, always. (Varium et mutabile semper femina.)

If I am unable to make the gods above relent, I shall move hell.

We are not all able to do all things.

In his deepest heart there surge tremendous shame and madness mixed with sorrow and love whipped on by frenzy and a courage aware of its own worth.

Endure and save yourselves for happier times.

And, just for good measure, here are a handful of runners up: For now the seventh summer carries you, A wanderer, across the lands and waters.

Fear reveals baseborn souls!

Evil is nourished and grows by concealment.

The greatest health is wealth.

I feel again a spark of that ancient flame.

The cursed hunger for gold. -Auri sacra fames

She nourishes the poison in her veins and is consumed by a secret fire.

May the countryside and the gliding valley streams content me. Lost to fame, let me love river and woodland.

You, Roman, remember to rule peoples with your power. -Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento

Mantua gave me birth, Calabri snatched me away, now Parthenope holds me; I sang of shepherds, pastures, and heroes. -Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope, cecini pascua, rura, duces

If I can not bend Heaven, I shall move Hell

He is fortunate who had been able to learn the causes of things. -Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas

Learn all from one thing. -Ab uno disce omnes

Each draws to his best-loved.

All these souls, after they have passed away a thousand years, are summoned by the divine ones in great array, to the lethean river. . . . In this way they become forgetful of the former earthlife, and re-visit the vaulted realms of the world, willing to return again into living bodies.

We have to thank God for this retirement.

The wavering multitude is divided into opposite factions.

Don't trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even bearing gifts. -Equo ne credite, Teucri. Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes

Time bears away all things.

The leader of the deed was a woman. -Dux femina facti

Nunc scio quit sit amor." Lat., "Now I know what love is.

They are able who think they are able.

The hour is ripe, and yonder lies the way.

Rumor goes forth at once, Rumor than whom No other speedier evil thing exists; She thrives by rapid movement, and acquires Strength as she goes; small at the first from fear, She presently uplifts herself aloft, And stalks upon the ground and hides her head Among the clouds.

Womankind Is ever a fickle and a changeful thing.

Impotent fury rages powerless and to no purpose.

Enter on the way of training while the spirits in youth are still pliable.

Passion and strife bow down the mind

A fickle and changeful thing is a woman ever.

Happy the person who has learned the cause of things and has put under his or her feet all fear, inexorable fate, and the noisy strife of the hell of greed.

Trust the expert. -Experto credite

Harsh necessity, and the newness of my kingdom, force me to do such things and to guard my frontiers everywhere.

Sing in me, muse, of arms and a man, who first from the shores of Troy.