Ovid quotes
Ovid (43 BC–17): Roman poet. The library holds 262 quotes by Ovid, drawn from Metamorphoses, The Art of Love, Fasti and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, time, love, faith, nature, grief
The best-known Ovid quotes
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The feelings generally run riot in prosperity; and to bear good fortune with evenness of mind is no easy task.
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The wounded limb shrinks from even a gentle touch, and the unsubstantial shadow strikes the timid with alarm.
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I know not by what sweet charm our native soil attracts us to it, and does not suffer us ever to forget it.
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Yield to your opponent; by so doing you will come off victor in the end.
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I attempt an arduous task; but there is no worth that is not of difficult achievement.
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The mind conscious of integrity ever scorns the lies of rumour.
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Forgive what I have done, since you know all evil intention was far from me.
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Whatever you suffer deservedly should be borne with resignation; the penalty that comes upon us undeservedly comes as a matter of just complaint.
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Souls are immortal; and admitted, after quitting their first abode, into new homes, they live and dwell in them for ever.
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There are as many girls in your Rome as there are stars in the sky.
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Let love give way to business; give attention to business, and you will be safe.
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At the applauses of the public, and at its transports of joy, every genius may grow warm.
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It is delightful to spend one’s time in the tillage of the fields.
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I am about to sing of facts; but some will say I have invented them.
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To be sensible of disease and remove it is not the same thing. The sense of it exists in all; by skill alone is disease removed.
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It is the judge’s duty to inquire into not only the facts, but the circumstances.
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He who is not prepared to-day will be less ready to-morrow.
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The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.
Fasti. iv. 311 -
We can scarcely call birth and ancestry and what we have not ourselves done, our own.
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No one should be called happy before he is dead and buried.
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Regard for the wretched is a duty, and deserving of praise even in an enemy.
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There are as many pangs in love as shells on the sea-shore.
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The time will come when it will disgust you to look in a mirror.
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It is some alleviation of an incurable disease to speak of it to others.
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Alas! how difficult it is not to betray guilt by our looks!
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It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.
Metamorphoses. xiii -
The last day must always be awaited by man, and no man should be pronounced happy before his death and his final obsequies.
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He delighted to wander over unknown regions, to visit unknown rivers, the interest lessening the fatigue.
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There, with the wine in front of you, you will tell many a story.
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In your judgment virtue needs no reward, and is to be sought for her own sake, unaccompanied by external benefits.
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The ghost of the rich man will carry nothing to the shades below.
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Dress deceives us: jewels and gold hide everything: the girl herself is the least part of herself.
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Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish, I confess that to my misfortune it is soft.
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These things are at once the cause and food of this delicious malady.
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The will is commendable, though the ability may be wanting.
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It is bad to hurry, and delay is often as bad; he is wise who does everything in its proper time.
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Be it your care to follow; with me for your guide you will be safe.
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All things human hang by a slender thread; and that which seemed to stand strong of a sudden falls and sinks in ruins.
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The sacred and venerable name of friendship is now despised and trodden under foot.
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What have you to do with the sea? You should have been content with the land.
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Time glides on stealthily, and eludes us as it steals past.
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I have not wounded any one with stinging satire, nor does my poetry contain a charge against any man.
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It is easy to be good, when all that prevents it is far removed.
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But do you of your own ingenuity take up more than my words?
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Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and gods; Jupiter himself is won over and appeased by gifts.
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That you may please others you must be forgetful of yourself.
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Fire is fed by the wind and extinguished by the wind: a gentle current feeds it, too strong a one puts it out!
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Bear and endure; you have borne much heavier misfortunes than these.
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Bear and endure; this sorrow will one day prove to be for your good.
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Much have I written; but what I considered faulty I myself committed to the correcting flames.
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Have your hook always baited; in the pool where you least think it there will be a fish.
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Majesty and love do not consort well together, nor do they dwell in the same place.
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Jupiter hurls his reckless thunderbolts against many who have not guiltily deserved such punishment.
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There is a God within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated.
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Kings, and the triumphs of kings, must yield to the power of song.
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Ah! with what a weight of destiny is this one slight plank freighted!
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Birth, ancestry, and what we have ourselves not done, I would hardly call our own.
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There is no friend near to console me, none to beguile the weary hours with his talk.
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They come to see; they come that they themselves may be seen.
The Art of Love. i. 99 -
We are slow to believe that which, if believed, would work us harm.
Where these quotes come from
- Metamorphoses (3 quotes)
- The Art of Love (2 quotes)
- Fasti (1 quote)
- In the name of Daedalus when he escaped from the labyrinth on wings (1 quote)
- Of Phaethon (1 quote)
- Metamorphoses: Phaeton (1 quote)
- Metamorphoses: Actaeon (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .