Ovid quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Ovid

Ovid Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Ovid on Wise Famous Quotes.

Medicine sometimes snatches away health, sometimes gives it.

Skill makes love unending.

The art of medicine in the season lies:
Wine given in season oft will benefit,
Which out of season injures.

Death is less bitter punishment than death's delay.

Good-bye to the lies of the poets.
[Lat., Valeant mendacia vatum.]

Grief is put to flight and assuaged by generous draughts.

When there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing.

You will go most safely by the middle way.

The gift derives its value from the rank of the giver.

It is the poor man who'll ever count his flock.

Agreeing to differ.
[Lat., Discors concordia.]

Devouring Time and envious Age, all things yield to you; and with lingering death you destroy, step by step, with venomed tooth whatever you attack.

It's useful that there should be Gods, so let's believe there are.

Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.

The more they drink the more they thirst.

You can learn from anyone even your enemy.

God himself helps those who dare.

Novelty in all things is charming.

Man's last day must ever be awaited and none to be
counted happy until his death, until his last funeral rites
are paid.

The wild boar is often held by a small dog.
[Lat., A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.]

Those gifts are ever the most acceptable which the giver makes precious.
[Lat., Acceptissima semper munera sunt auctor quae pretiosa facit.]

Fair peace becomes men; ferocious anger belongs to beasts.

First try all other means, but if the wound
Heal not, then use the knife, lest to the clean
From the diseased the canker spread.

Stop short of your appetite; eat less than you are able.

Calumny ever pursues the great, even as the winds hurl themselves on high places.

When the character's right, looks are a greater delight.

How little you know about the age you live in if you think that honey is sweeter than cash in hand

Friendship is but a name; fidelity but an empty name.

Pursuits become habits.

You who seek an end of love, love yields to business: be busy, and you will be safe.

The penalty may be removed, the crime is eternal.

A prince should be slow to punish, and quick to reward.

105. I congratulate myself on not having arrived into this world until the present time. This age suits my taste.

I see and praise what is better, but follow what is worse.

Thy destiny is only that of man, but thy aspirations may be those of a god.

No thanks attach to a kindness long deferred.

What is now reason was formerly impulse or instinct.

Simplicity is a jewel rarely found.

If you would be loved, be lovable

A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.

Tempus edax rerum. Time the devourer of everything.

Thus all things altered. Nothing dies. And here and there the unbodied spirit flies.

He whom all hate all wish to see destroyed.

God gave man an upright countenance to survey the heavens, and to look upward to the stars.

All other creatures look down toward the earth, but man was given a face so that might turn his eyes toward the stars and his gaze upon the sky.

A soldier when aged is not appreciated; the love of an old man sickens.

They come to see, they come that they themselves may be seen.
[Lat., Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipse.]

Beauty is a frail good.

Presents, believe me, seduce both men and gods.

A light breath fans the flame, a violent gust extinguishes it.

What is harder than stone?
What more soft than water?
Nevertheless hard though the rock be, it is hollowed by the wave.

It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is in our immortal soul.

When a rose dies, a thorn is left behind.

Tempus edax rerum.
Time that devours all things.

O fool, what else is sleep but chill death's likeness?

Those presents are the most acceptable which are enhanced by our regard for the donor.

Nations and empires flourish and decay, By turns command, and in their turns obey.

The spirits run riot in youth.

A short absence is the safest.

What is hid is unknown: for what is unknown there is no desire.
[Lat., Quod latet ignotum est; ignoti nulla cupido.]

And he sets his mind to unknown arts

Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour.

Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together.

What is it that love does to a woman? Without she only sleeps; with it alone, she lives.

A mind conscious of right laughs at the falsehoods of rumour.
[Lat., Conscia mens recti famae mendacia risit.]

It is no less a feat to keep what you have, than to increase it. In one there is chance, the other will be a work of art.

Love is a believing creature.

Use the occasion, for it passes swiftly.

A woman is always buying something.

By looking at squinting people you learn to squint.

A safe pleasure is a tame pleasure.

for no god may undo what another god has done...

Isn't the best defense always a good attack?

Small minds are captivated by trifles.

Suppressed pain chokes us; in our breasts
It surges, adding ever to its strength.

Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and Gods, Jupiter himself was won over and appeased by gifts.

Love is a credulous thing.

A man is sorry to be honest for nothing.

Fair peace is becoming to men; fierce anger belongs to beasts.

Love's dominion, like a kings, admits of no partition.

Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul.

Although they posses enough, and more than enough still they yearn for more.

Temporis ars medicina fere est.
Time is generally the best medicine.

We have ploughed the vast ocean in a fragile bark.

He who sins easily, sins less. The very power
Renders less vigorous the roots of evil.

Nothing aids which may not also injure us.
Fire serves us well, but he who plots to burn
His neighbor's roof arms his hands with fire.

And warns us to use life's beauty as it blooms. The thorn is spurned when the rose has dropped.

She who resists as though she would not win,
By her own treason falls an easy prey.

What follows I flee; what flees I ever pursue.

Envy aims very high.

Remove the temptation of idleness and Cupid's bow is useless.

Tis you, alone, can save, or give my doom.

The time will come when you will hate the sight of a mirror.

Let the man who does not wish to be idle, fall in love.

So long as you are secure you will count many friends; if your life becomes clouded you will be alone.

The glow of inspiration warms us; this holy rapture springs from the seeds of the Divine mind sown in man.

He who says o'er much I love not is in love.

Some people think that because they do the opposite of what they are asked to do, they have initiative

Imperceptibly the hours glide on, and beguile us as they pass.

Nothing is stronger than Custom
(Fac tibi consuescat: nil adsuetudine maius)