Quintilian Quotes

Though ambition itself be a vice, yet it is often times the cause of virtues.

It is the heart which inspires eloquence.

He who speaks evil only differs from his who does evil in that he lacks opportunity.

For the mind is all the easier to teach before it is set.

To swear, except when necessary, is becoming to an honorable man.

Forbidden pleasures alone are loved immoderately; when lawful, they do not excite desire.

The perfection of art is to conceal art.

Let us never adopt the maxim, Rather lose our friend than our jest.

Fear of the future is worse than one's present fortune.

A religion without mystics is a philosophy.

While we ponder when to begin, it becomes too late to do.

It is much easier to try one's hand at many things than to concentrate one's powers on one thing.

A mediocre speech supported by all the power of delivery will be more impressive than the best speech unaccompanied by such power.

Give bread to a stranger, in the name of the universal brotherhood which binds together all men under the common father of nature.

Conscience is a thousand witnesses.

Without natural gifts technical rules are useless.

A laugh costs too much when bought at the expense of virtue.

From writing rapidly it does not result that one writes well, but from writing well it results that one writes rapidly.

Study depends on the goodwill of the student, a quality that cannot be secured by compulsion.

To my mind the boy who gives least promise is one in whom the critical faculty develops in advance of the imagination.

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

Vain hopes are like certain dreams of those who wake.

When defeat is inevitable, it is wisest to yield.

That which prematurely arrives at perfection soon perishes.

Suffering itself does less afflict the senses than the apprehension of suffering.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.

Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

Sayings designed to raise a laugh are generally untrue and never complimentary. Laughter is never far removed from derision.

Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue.

Nothing can be pleasing which is not also becoming.

Those who wish to appear learned to fools, appear as fools to the learned.

The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body.

While we are making up our minds as to when we shall begin, the opportunity is lost.

A liar ought to have a good memory.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

It is easier to do many things than to do one thing continuously for a long time.

She abounds with lucious faults.

The learned understand the reason of art; the unlearned feel the pleasure.

Our minds are like our stomaches; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.

Usage is the best language teacher.

Lately we have had many losses.

By writing quickly we are not brought to write well, but by writing well we are brought to write quickly.

When we cannot hope to win, it is an advantage to yield.

Nature herself has never attempted to effect great changes rapidly.

Verse satire indeed is entirely our own.

While we are examining into everything we sometimes find truth where we least expected it.

For comic writers charge Socrates with making the worse appear the better reason.

Where evil habits are once settled, they are more easily broken than mended.

Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.

Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.

As regards parents, I should like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I do not restrict this remark to fathers alone.

Medicine for the dead is too late

We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.

It is worth while too to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times to discourage a boy's mind from effort.

Satiety is a neighbor to continued pleasures.
[Lat., Continuis voluptatibus vicina satietas.]

That which offends the ear will not easily gain admission to the mind.

In almost everything, experience is more valuable than precept.

The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, yet it is often the parent of virtues.

A laugh, if purchased at the expense of propriety, costs too much.

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

Though ambition may be a fault in itself, it is often the mother of virtues.

If you direct your whole thought to work itself, none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind.

An evil-speaker differs from an evil-doer only in the want of opportunity.

It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.

For all the best teachers pride themselves on having a large number of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger audience.

It is the nurse that the child first hears, and her words that he will first attempt to imitate.

Whilst we deliberate how to begin a thing, it grows too late to begin it.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.

Men, even when alone, lighten their labors by song, however rude it may be.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

The pretended admission of a fault on our part creates an excellent impression.

In a crowd, on a journey, at a banquet even, a line of thought can itself provide its own seclusion.

The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is moulded by the contemplation of virtue and vice.