Augustus Quotations

Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.

Just as men must give up economic control when their wives share the responsibility for the family's financial well-being, women must give up exclusive parental control when their husbands assume more responsibility for child care.

I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

The greatest impediments to changes in our traditional roles seem to lie not in the visible world of conscious intent, but in the murky realm of the unconscious mind.

I am a man of my word.

I'd always thought the world was a wish-granting factory.

Did I play my role well? If so, then applause, because the comedy is finished!

I had a good mind to discontinue permanently the supply of grain to the city, reliance on which had discouraged Italian agriculture, but refrained because some politician would be bound one day to revive the dole as a means of ingratiating himself with the people.

Only that which is well done is quickly done.

I came to see a king, not a row of corpses.

Make haste cautiously.

If I have played my part well, clap your hands, and dismiss me with applause from the stage.

To seek to keep the established constitution unchanged argues a good citizen and a good man.

Nothing common can seem worthy of you.

Everyone wants to lead an extraordinary life.

After this time I surpassed all others in authority, but I had no more power than the others who were also my colleagues in office.

Keep our marriage alive, and farewell.

Young men, listen to an old man to whom old men listened when he was young.

Behold them, conquerors of the world, the toga-clad race of Romans!

May it be my privilege to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a firm and stable basis and thus enjoy the reward which I desire, but only if I may be called the architect of the best possible government; and bear with me the hope when I die, that the foundations which I have laid for its future government, will stand deep and secure.

Better a cautious commander, and not a rash one.

Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.

The tales of our exploits will survive as long as the human voice itself,

He [Julius Caesar] learned that Alexander , having completed nearly all his conquests by the time he was thirty-two years old, was at an utter loss to know what he should do during the rest of his life, whereat Augustus expressed his surprise that Alexander did not regard it as a greater task to set in order the empire which he had won than to win it.

Quintilius Varus, Give me back my legions!

You cheer my heart, who build as if Rome would be eternal.

What is done well is done quickly enough.

If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance.

We write our names in the sand: and then the waves roll in and wash them away.

Practice, the master of all things.

Is there anyone in Rome who has not slept with my daughter?!

Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit!

By marrying to soon, many individuals sacrifice their chance to struggle through this purgatory of solitude and search toward a greater sense of self-confidence. They glance at the world outside the family and with hardly a second thought grasp anxiously for a partner. In marriage they seek a substitute for the security of the family of origin and an escape from aloneness. What they do not realize is that moving so quickly from one family to another, they make it easy to transfer to the new marriage all their difficult experiences in the family of origin.

At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which service the senate, with complimentary resolutions, enrolled me in its order...

If you want rainbow, you have to deal with the rain.

Apparently, the world is not a wish granting factory.